


Saint Annabeth's

by TheCrazyFriend



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Tags Contain Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-04
Updated: 2019-09-16
Packaged: 2019-10-04 04:16:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 31
Words: 50,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17297594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheCrazyFriend/pseuds/TheCrazyFriend
Summary: My take on the religious AU in which Max and Chloe were orphaned and grew up in an orphanage. After a huge revelation Max and Chloe, along with an enigma, a social queen and a traumatized teen get left to fend for themselvesInspired by Escaping the Light and We Were All Affected by OmnicydeTW for discrimination, DV, child abuse, self-harm etc





	1. Saint Annabeth's

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Escaping The Light](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13970268) by [Omnicyde](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Omnicyde/pseuds/Omnicyde). 
  * Inspired by [We Were All Affected](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17027316) by [Omnicyde](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Omnicyde/pseuds/Omnicyde). 



Maxine Prescott lived with her best friend Chloe Prescott, arch-rival Nathaniel Prescott and a number of other kids ranging from four years old through to twenty-one under the roof of the Saint Annabeth's Children's Home, the orphanage owned by Sean Prescott. It was quite an enjoyable experience, better than being out on the streets at least and neither Maxine nor Chloe knew anything different. They had been Prescott's youngest, rescued when they were a mere few months old though they were found a few months apart and taken into the large Prescott family for the duration of their childhood if not longer. Prescott was always happy to give a loan to those aging out, he was happy to help them get set up in the community as they grew more mature. Maxine and Chloe had always shared a room since they were very little which only helped to cement their friendship, a friendship they both came to count upon in the structured environment of the orphanage which, though it suited most of the orphans it didn't mesh very well with Maxine nor Chloe. Maxine was always the shy nervous child who would rather hide away in her room than engage with the other children in the way that Sean expected them to and Chloe, while she was far more extroverted than Maxine was a bit on the wild side and often found herself in trouble for climbing the organ amongst other things. Maxine and Chloe stabilized each other and one of the pastors, a man called Mark Jefferson who was one of the people responsible for running the orphanage along with a man called Raymond Wells and Prescott himself had taken an instant liking to the pair and as such Jefferson had taken it upon himself to make Chloe his personal project. Out of all the children, Chloe was the least religious, a fact that showed quite clearly in her fashion sense. All of the girls were expected to wear traditional girl’s clothes and very rarely left the orphanage, not even to cross the courtyard to the small school where the boys spent their weekdays learning yet Chloe wore a tee and leggings, a far cry from the traditional dresses and skirts the other girls wore and Chloe actually left the orphanage grounds to go to school at the local high school, Blackwell. Jefferson always nodded at Chloe whenever he saw her and she nodded back while noticing that more often than not Chloe dragged Maxine along with her to get into some kind of mischief and Jefferson found himself secretly admiring Chloe for being so outwardly _herself_. He had been the one to encourage Prescott to let her be the one to go to the high school since she wasn't as firm in her beliefs as every other kid in the orphanage, she also had the intellect to go further than any of the other children. Chloe would, of course, be expected to bow her head and mouth the words of prayers and hymns but that was as far as it went.

Maxine and Chloe had just been taken to Jefferson's office because they were fooling around on the roof of one of the buildings yet again, Chloe thought of herself as lucky that Jefferson was the person responsible for discipline since he had taken a liking to her but what she heard through the door sent a shard of icy fear into her. Jefferson was mad, no he was _livid_ with the person who entered the office once they had left and while Chloe knew that the man had quite a temper she hadn't ever heard him like that. “Would you please _repeat that_?!” He had screamed, the boy who had gone into the office mumbled something in reply that Chloe had only just been able to hear and there was a loud banging noise as the door bounced off the wall. Jefferson stormed out of his office and glared at both of the girls he usually favored, “Maxine!!” he snapped, his face beet red from his fury, “get on to your class, now!! And Chloe, you should be on your way to Blackwell!! If I get back here and find you two still messing around I'll make sure you both don’t get free time for a month!!”  
_Shit!! He's pissed!_ “Come on, Max, let's get outta here...” Chloe whispered. Jefferson hadn't ever screamed at her like that before and considering how furious he looked, Chloe didn't really want to test him. Chloe hugged her best friend goodbye then walked to the front of the orphanage and out of the doors, snagging her bike as she headed toward Blackwell all the while wondering what had pissed Jefferson off so badly. He hadn't reacted that badly even when Chloe had yelled 'Jesus Christ’ at him.

It was a quick bike ride to Blackwell, it always was. Within twenty minutes she had arrived at the familiar campus, nodded at the overbearing and paranoid head of security, David Madsen and spat into the fountain on her way to join her second best friend, Rachel Amber. “Good morning, Rach” Chloe called lazily, shouldering her way past a young woman with short blonde hair who just looked at the ground as Chloe glared at her, daring her to be the bitch she clearly wanted to be  
“Ah, the spawn of the Prescott graces us plebians with her presence!” Rachel called back  
“Fuck you too, Amber” Chloe replied. “What's our first class?”  
“Eh, yours is American history” Rachel replied, “but not for another twenty minutes, smoke?”  
“Fuck yeah” Chloe smirked at her best friend. Rachel rolled her eyes and pulled out a pack of cigarettes  
“You know, Prescott you ought to buy your own cigarettes, I bet that Jefferson guy would let you off if you did”  
“Oh man, you should’ve seen him earlier, he was so pissed off that he screamed at _me_!”  
“Christ, Chloe, really?”  
“Uh huh,” Chloe nodded, “Max didn't deserve to be screamed at though. I was an idiot again, persuaded her to clamber out the window to dance on the roof”  
“Chloe that's the third time this month” Rachel sounded exasperated with her friend's antics  
“I know... But it's so fun getting away with everything. I don't even have to recite prayers with them, well not in the way they do”  
“You... You don't?”  
“Nope. I think daddy Prescott has given up on me what with Jefferson taking a liking and all. You got any pot?”  
“Of course but it's not a morning thing...”  
Chloe scrunched up her face like a spoilt brat and stomped her foot. “Wake. And. Bake!!”  
Rachel rolled her eyes, “okay cutie”  
_Oh fuck, Rach is hitting on me again_. Chloe rolled her eyes, “gag”  
“You know you like it really”  
“Mhm, sure, Rach”  
“You're the only person I allow to call me...”  
BBBRRRRRRRRIIIIINNNNGGGGG  
“Oh, fuck, come on Chlo let's get going”  
“Sure, Rach, I’ll see you at lunch”  
Chloe and Rachel went to their different classrooms for their first class of the day

*****

A flying fist. A cracking rib. A high pitched yelp of pain. A thud. More sickening squelching noises, more yelps then... There was silence


	2. Friendship

Rachel Amber was in high school by the time she met her best friend, a girl called Chloe Prescott. One Friday while she was acting as principal Wells’ administrative assistant he asked her to put down the paperwork she was sorting and sit. She nodded and forced a smile though her insecurities were privately getting the better of her. “Yes, sir?” she asked once she had sat at his desk  
“You have been my administrative assistant since the middle of last year, haven't you Rachel?”  
“Yes, sir. Is there a problem with my help?” _How drunk is he today?_  
“No, of course not. You're perhaps the best administrative assistant I've ever had. It's just...” Wells began, Rachel prepared herself for bad news and put on her best mask. “We have a new student starting next Monday”  
“Oh?”  
“Chloe Prescott, she’s about your age”  
“With all due respect, I don't see how this impacts me, Sir”  
“I would appreciate it if you would help Ms. Prescott settle into life at Blackwell”  
“Sir?”  
“Ms. Amber, you have to understand before you make your decision one way or the other, Ms. Prescott is one of the children from Saint Annabeth's, the orphanage”  
“Really? I've never met any of the kids from the orphanage, don't they have their own school?”  
“Yeah they do, she'll be the first to ever come to this school. Now Ms. Amber, Ms. Prescott has had a difficult life and she’s apparently quite the troublemaker”  
_Perfect, I've been looking for someone to go to Firewalk with me!!_ “I understand, sir”  
“One more thing, religion is an important aspect of life for all the orphans, I know you're an atheist but I must insist that you not do anything to jeopardize Ms. Prescott's belief in Christ”  
_Shit, you got me nervous now_. “I understand, Sir”  
“You will not be joining me here to be my administrative assistant for at least a few weeks, instead you will be able to take the first period off every day with Ms. Prescott where she’ll hopefully feel at ease”  
“Yes, Sir, I'll do it”

Rachel felt anxious waking up in her dorm on Monday morning, she knew she would be meeting Chloe later that day, in a few short hours she would be hanging out with a Christian girl who was more likely than not to disagree with everything she had ever been brought up to believe. She threw her blankets off, moved to the door and had just opened it when she realized that she wasn’t wearing anything, her head had been so stuffed full of anxiety that she had failed to pull on her pajamas. _Shit_. Rachel turned back, grabbing her pajamas then leaving her room to go to the showers. She showered quickly then returned to her room while avoiding Victoria Chase, she didn't want to put up with any bullshit

Half an hour before she was due to meet Chloe she took the last sip of her coffee, returned the coffee cup to its place on top of her coffee maker and finally left her room to go to the front of the school where she was to meet with Principal Wells and Chloe. Rachel ended up playing some addictive game on her phone until it was time for her to meet with Wells and the new student, Chloe.  
Rachel smiled at Wells, “Good morning, Ms. Amber”  
“Morning, Sir” Rachel looked up at him with a nervous smile  
“Ready to meet her?”  
“Sure.” _Nope_

A spotless black Audi pulled up outside the front of the school and a girl with short blue hair clambered out of the back. “Remember to behave, Chloe” a male voice had warned  
“Yeah. Sure, Mark” Chloe rolled her eyes at the handsome man who was driving the Audi. “I'll be okay from here, Mark”  
Chloe moved toward the steps and climbed them two at a time. She skidded to a halt in front of Rachel and Wells with a grin. “What's up?!”  
Rachel was taken aback by the girl’s appearance. She had faded and ripped jeans on along with a Firewalk tee though the most surprising detail was her vivid blue hair. _Holy shit!_  
“Good morning Ms. Prescott, I am Mr. Wells, the principal of this fine institution and this is Rachel Amber” he indicated the blonde. “She'll be staying with you while you get used to life at Blackwell  
“Sup!” Chloe smirked at her with a nod while watching her with curiosity. Wells smiled and excused himself after a few moments, leaving the two girls to get to know each other.

“Holy shit...” Chloe breathed with a massive sigh of relief  
Rachel's eyes almost bulged right out of their sockets, _she swears?!_  
“Yeah, just so you know I swear worse than a drunken sailor, that's not gonna be a problem is it?” Chloe drawled confidently  
“Don't religious people hate swearing?” Rachel asked nervously  
“Oh, Jesus Christ don't even get me fucking started on how pretentious and fucking petty religious people can be!!”  
“You speak as if you're not one...?”  
“I'm really not one. Fuck, you know what I'm looking forward to? Not having to fucking wait for everyone else to say grace before starting any of my meals. I've already met you so that's number one on my bucket list crossed off!”  
Rachel scratched her head in complete confusion but blushed at Chloe's bucket list comment, _did the supposed-to-be religious girl just flirt with me?!_. “So you swear... And blaspheme. What” Rachel elongated the 't' while contemplating the decision to continue her questioning while Chloe waited patiently. “What... What do you think of same-sex relationships?”  
“I have no opinion on them, love is love, right?”  
“But...”  
Chloe laughed, a sound that Rachel hoped she’d be hearing a lot more. “I don't care what religious people believe, Rachel... It's nobody’s business except those in the relationship”  
“Mhm, yeah... You're actually right”  
“D'ya have a cigarette?”  
“What the fuck???!??”  
“Eh, it’s just something I wanted to try, don't worry about it I'll get myself some”  
“You will?”  
“Yeah...”  
A few moments later the bell rung and Chloe, instead of following Rachel to the room set aside for their usage, headed towards their first class, science

*****

Rachel smiled fondly as she recalled the day she had met Chloe. The 'Christian girl' had turned out to be incredibly intelligent, answering all but two of the questions asked in their very first science class, the only reason she didn't answer the other two was that the teacher, Mrs. Grant wanted someone else to try and answer her questions and the person she chose got lucky. Two days after they met, Rachel and Chloe went to the Old Mill to see Firewalk and a week after that they shared their first kiss. Chloe felt safe at Blackwell, though she felt safest in Rachel's dorm where she could explore for the first time what it truly meant to be Chloe Prescott and she could explore things like smoking, swearing, alcohol, and drugs for the first time without risking retribution for being unbecoming of a Christian. She realized after a few seconds that Chloe was trying to talk to her, “Yes, Chlo?”  
“I was just saying what should we do to celebrate our three month anniversary of being not-girlfriends”  
“Three months... Christ, the time sure does fly when you're having fun”  
“It sure does” Chloe smiled then it faded, she was remembering how mad Jefferson had been. She moved closer to Rachel, her anxiety peaking. “What does...” her voice dipped down to below a whisper, “mean?” she asked,  
“Where... Where did you hear that?” Rachel's brows furrowed in confusion  
“Someone was talking to Jefferson about someone who said they were... That” Chloe didn't dare name what it was, not in somewhere public like a high school  
“Oh god...” Rachel went pale, “Jefferson knows about this person?”  
“Yeah... I'm guessing that's bad?”  
“Hella bad...” Rachel mumbled and Chloe looked over at Rachel, “does anyone from the church know? Other than Jefferson?”  
“Yeah, Jefferson and probably old man Prescott,” Chloe replied calmly, not realizing the severity of the situation. “Not sure about any of the others, Richard Marsh, his wife Charity and her sister Bethany. Pastor Jones might know too I guess?”  
“Shit...”  
“Rach, what's wrong?”  
“This person... Their life might well be in danger!!”  
“Seriously?!”  
“Absolutely!” Rachel cried, “Well lucky we've got the rest of the day off”  
“No, we haven't, Rach”  
“We have now” Rachel insisted, “we gotta get to the orphanage and help...”  
“Nathan” Chloe provided  
“Help Nathan”  
“Okay!” Chloe tilted her head, “I don't like that pretentious prick that much but... I don't want him hurt!”  
“Come on then, Chloe, let's go!!”


	3. Prescott Barn

“Rach...”  
“Chloe, we gotta hurry!!”  
“There’s only so fast you can go on these roads, Rach!”  
“Is the fearless pirate fearful?”  
“Shut up, Rach”  
Rachel laughed then headed off down a small track that she had seen the car that she knew belonged to Jefferson. “What if he's not down here, Rach?”  
“Then we search the orphanage for hidden dungeons” Rachel replied. “What do you know about Nathan?”  
“He's the only one in that orphanage who's actually related to Prescott”  
“But what's he like”  
“Pretentious, a bit snobbish and everything else you'd expect from the rich boy. Will that be a problem?”  
“I hope so” Rachel murmured ominously

The pair fell into a comfortable silence, driving quickly but not dangerously quickly up the track. Eventually, they reached a clearing which held nothing other than a barn. “Looks like we're here” Rachel whispered, pulling off the track and driving the truck around behind the barn so it wouldn't be immediately apparent. Rachel killed the engine moments before voices were audible within the shabby wooden structure that certainly looked like it had seen better days.  
“Yes, Mark. He needs to be cured of his sins”  
“Yes, of course, Mr. Prescott. Maybe we should parade his broken body in front of the other kids once we’re done with him? Might make the idea of sinning a little less appealing for them.” Jefferson spoke frankly to Prescott, making it clear they did not think that anyone ever came up that track.  
Rachel signaled to Chloe, Chloe had taught Rachel her and Max's secret pirate code when they had first met and both girls held onto it as a memory they had bonded over. “Nah, not a good idea. Seeing his beaten, broken body might terrify some of them far too much”  
“After you, Mr. Prescott” the two girls heard a car door being opened then closed. They heard a deep sigh, “if only you'd let me show off what happens to those that dare sin...” The barn doors creaked open prompting Rachel and Chloe to drop down and hide behind a disused tractor and a door opened. Jefferson must've clambered into the car as the car door shut, the engine started up and the car drove away.  
“Come on, Chloe, let's go” Rachel stood and moved into the barn through the hole they had found, Chloe followed behind carefully but stopped dead when she saw Rachel pull a gun out of her bag and hold it out in front of her. 

Rachel led the way around the empty barn but, aside from a few ancient papers regarding the Prescotts, found nothing on their initial sweep. Eventually, Chloe stumbled across something, she stood on a portion of the barn floor that sounded to be metal and after clearing it of hay and other farmyard debris, found a sizable metal hatch locked with a heavy-duty padlock. “Shit!” Chloe hissed and indicated the padlock once Rachel had moved over from the other side of the barn, “at least we know nobody's down there” she added nervously  
Rachel nodded, “how the hell do we break that thing open? I don't have many bullets in the gun so it's probably best I save them”  
Chloe cast an appraising eye around her at all the otherwise worthless junk and a plan quickly showed itself. “Rach! Help me get up there?” she pointed at the platform above their heads and Rachel quickly helped Chloe up with a leg up. “Now go tie that end of the rope to that padlock down there”  
“Chloe... What are you planning?”  
“Don't argue with me, Rach we don't have the time” Rachel nodded immediately and tied the rope on as Chloe instructed. By the time Rachel had done that, Chloe had clambered up on to the top level. “Get back, Rachel!” Chloe pointed at the farthest wall

A few seconds later there was a resounding crack. An old engine or something had fallen from the highest level to the floor which tore the robust padlock into two as easily as ripping through paper. “Whooo hoooo!!” Chloe exclaimed and together the two girls lifted the metal hatch to gain access to an underground tunnel. “What... The fuck?”  
Rachel sighed sadly. “Look at this Chloe, this is a big heavy ass door”  
“An electronic lock is the next thing. See here, the buttons have been passed, we just gotta check each of these combinations in sequence” Rachel and Chloe advanced on the door and Rachel tested each of the combinations one at a time until... Click. “SUCCESS!!”

Rachel and Chloe pulled the heavy bunker door open and crept inside the bunker. “This place looks like the sorta place you'd hide out at in a zombie apocalypse” Chloe murmured. She led the way into the bunker eventually pulling aside a blood-spattered curtain.

“Oh, my god!!! Nathan!!”


	4. Dark Room

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chloe and Rachel discover the truth in the Dark Room

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: aftermath of abuse

“Holy shit” Chloe mumbled. “What the fuck, what the fuck happened to you?” _I never liked Nathan but... no matter how much of a pretentious prick he was, he didn't deserve this_  
Nathan groaned, barely with it. His face was black and blue, his once perfect nose crooked in several places and his eyes bloodshot. What could be seen of his arms and torso wasn’t much better, he had clearly been beaten severely. Burns littered his arms and bruises were visible through the damage to his tee, bruises that were just beginning to form. “Holy shit is right, Chloe. What the fuck...??”  
Immediately upon hearing their voices, Nathan recoiled. “N... No” He found himself too weak to continue his desperate pleas. _No... Please don't hurt me!!_  
“Nathan...” Rachel moved a little closer, slowly so she would not frighten the boy before her who was understandably incredibly vulnerable. Her eyes appraised the situation, the duct tape around Nathan's wrists and ankles, the clearly broken bones in the boy’s arms and the thin trails of blood running from various wounds that looked fresh if the blood was anything to go by. Rachel shivered and it wasn't down to the frankly foreboding atmosphere of the bunker nor the chill to the air that wasn't entirely from the chill to the air. Chloe meanwhile had found a computer and some expensive looking camera equipment that was pointed at the chair Nathan was in and another lot that were pointed at the ground where there were several bloodstains.  
“What the fuck?” Chloe's voice echoed from the other side of the room, she had been clicking through the computer and tortured cries echoed out of hidden speakers somewhere under the desk. On the screen, Nathan was writhing and screaming as Jefferson and Prescott hit him repeatedly. Prescott was holding a hot poker while Jefferson had a whip. “Fucking hell!” Chloe quickly shut the video file blind, her face having gone pale and her beautiful blue eyes clamped shut. “That's fucking sickening.” _Jeffershit and Prick-scott are sick cunts_  
“You gotta take a copy of it, use this USB thingy.” Rachel handed over the USB stick for Chloe to copy the video to, “I have plenty of other USBs, that one can be used to store those files”  
After a few moments, Chloe turned to Rachel, “You got it?”  
“Yeah, it's copying...” _Hurry the fuck up!!_

Rachel smiled up at Chloe but her face hardened, realizing that their job was only just beginning. “Hey, Chlo, you got your knife on you?”  
“Of course, I never go anywhere without it” Chloe pulled her knife out of her boot and flicked it out in preparation to do what Rachel asked, Rachel indicated the tape and Chloe slit through it.  
“How are we gonna get him out?” Chloe asked

“Nathan, Nathan” Rachel had to repeat his name a few times to get his attention but he eventually managed to focus on Rachel's face, more or less.  
“Mmm?” The boy could barely groan  
“You think you can stand for us?” Nathan attempted to stand. _This doesn't look very good..._  
“We gotta get him to hospital...” Chloe mumbled  
“We can't, Chloe... If we take him to hospital, his father will find out” Rachel replied  
“His... Father was involved in the beatings... And probably doesn't want him to get out.” The realization had dawned on Chloe, icy horror filled her veins  
“Exactly. The next nearest hospital is Portland”  
“Oh shit” Chloe's face scrunched up in frustration  
“Yeah...” Rachel sighed, “we gotta get him all the way there”  
“H-how far is that?”  
“About an hour in the truck?”

Chloe made no further attempt to engage Rachel in conversation. She pulled the USB from the computer once the files finished copying and slid it into her boot along with her knife. Rachel and Chloe then helped Nathan to his feet and guided him out towards the exit though with Nathan in the state he was in it was slow going. “Hang on” Chloe muttered, she rushed back to the expensive computer equipment and shoved it off the desk as violently as possible. “FUCK. THIS. SICK. SHIT!!”  
“Chloe?”  
“I want to make a mark on what this sick bastard is doing!!” Chloe growled, grabbing a tripod and smashing the computer with it before turning her wrath on the photography equipment, brutally smashing whatever was within reach of her arms into the floor. Finally, she pulled out her lighter and set all the named red folders in one of the cabinets alight without even looking in them.  
Rachel meanwhile grabbed her phone and started taking pictures of the paperwork she found on the desk including invoices that were addressed to Sean Prescott, invoices that concerned the construction of the bunker and for a brand new state of the art surveillance system. _Gotcha by the balls now!_

A few moments later, Rachel was done. “Chloe!!” Rachel grumbled at the girl who was setting fires wherever she found disturbing photographs. “Come on, let's get outta here” Chloe smirked, nodded and slipped her lighter back into her pocket. She quickly took Nathan's other arm and helped carry the boy out of the bunker. 

Chloe and Rachel set Nathan down in the barn to close the bunker door and the trap door behind them. Nathan, dressed only in his pajamas shivered with shock, his body temperature dropping even further than it had in the cool bunker. The girls took his arms again, unfortunately having to ignore his grunts of pain as they manhandled him through the deserted and dilapidated barn that smelled strongly of rot. Eventually, after a number of tedious minutes, they managed to get him through the hole in the side of the barn. 

“Shit!! Hurry up, I can hear Jefferson's car!” Chloe looked panicked as the sound of an engine could be heard getting closer and closer. _Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. FUCK!!!!_


	5. Getaway

Chloe and Rachel had looked over their shoulders the whole time the car was pulling up towards the barn, they found themselves in a frightening situation. After seeing what Prescott and Jefferson had done to Nathan, Prescott's son, they couldn't begin to imagine the horrors the two men would unleash on them if they were caught, horrors that most likely would come from the depths of hell itself. “You know, Mark... I'm surprised at you” a familiar voice spoke openly a few moments after a car door had opened. The two girls couldn't see what was going on but they knew that Jefferson had got out of the car first and then opened the back door for Sean Prescott, the man who had just spoken  
“Oh?” In Chloe's mind’s eye, Jefferson had looked over at the man he was with for a few moments before he managed to compose a more... Appropriate response to what the man has said. “I'm sorry, Mr. Prescott, I do not understand”  
“That Price girl, I don't understand why you keep playing favorites with her. Had I been in your position, any one of her transgressions so far would've been enough to land her here in the Dark Room”  
_So, this place has a name_. Rachel thought, she was too terrified to even look at her best friend let alone open her mouth and fortunately the still half with it Nathan had also remained quiet, even when both girls had unceremoniously lifted him up by his underarms and legs to dump him in the truck. _And who the fuck is the Price girl?_  
“Mr. Prescott, I fail to see how expressing yourself is a crime. Yea, women should remain subservient to men, of course they should but the Bible never said anything about music tastes. As for the hair issue, while dyeing it isn't strictly traditional, it’s encouraged for women to have short hair in Ezekiel 44:20. Besides, she isn't a worshipper of the devil like your son is, Mr. Prescott. Clambering on the roof of the orphanage is hardly a sin and as for the clothing, she'll grow out of it when she's an adult”  
Rachel shot a nervous glance at Chloe. _I wonder..._ Chloe looked back at Rachel, clearly trying to hide the fear that she was currently experiencing, that they both experienced together  
“Sure, Mark.” Prescott’s voice, a voice that wasn't filled with much confidence at Jefferson's words faded slightly as he headed deeper into the barn, toward where the trap door and the ruined Dark Room awaited them. Once the trap door clattered open and they had descended down to the dark room door, Rachel started the truck and drove at a reasonable pace while opening the windows in order to have a warning about what was to come. As she passed the corner of the barn she had debated ramming into one of the pillars that held the barn up to try and collapse it to give them more time for a getaway but it wasn't worth the risk to the truck. The building was old and rotten but they couldn't risk totaling the truck  
“WHAT THE FUCK?!” An angry yell burst from the Dark Room as Rachel drove out of the clearing, immediately Rachel put her foot down and drove back towards Arcadia Bay as fast as she could. 

“That was too close” Rachel laughed breathily as she drove as fast as she dared down the winding track that would eventually lead back to Arcadia Bay  
“Fuck, you can say that again. Jesus Christ!!”  
“Don’t... Don't” a tiny voice had interrupted Chloe before she could continue her expletive-filled rant  
“Look, Twitch... We just saved your fucking life, cut me some slack, dude”  
Nathan just didn't have any energy to get overly angry at the almost casual use of the nickname some of the other boys had come to call him as a result of his nervous twitch. _Please don't call me that_  
“Yeah, wonder what Ma...” Chloe shut her mouth at Rachel's elbow to her side, her wide-eyed and suddenly terrified expression enough to mollify her  
_Oh shit... What if this all comes back on us and they go after her!! This really wasn’t a well thought out idea after all_. “Shit!!”

A half hour of ignoring worried glances from Chloe later and both girls jumped out of the truck that Chloe had slowly been restoring without the orphanage’s knowledge. They both helped Nathan out of the truck as quickly and as quietly as they could before they slowly made their way towards the dorms. The trio made it across the sunny yet chilly courtyard and through to the main entrance without a problem where both girls sighed with relief, they had almost made it to Rachel's dorm when a hostile voice called out behind them. “That's a boy”  
_Oh for fuck’s sake!!_ “Please, Icky Vicky, not right now...” Rachel clenched her fists and didn't even look at the blonde behind them  
“Don’t call me that!!” The blonde in question stormed out of the dorm and off towards the main building before Rachel could say another word.  
“Stay here with Nathan, I need to go sort something” Rachel whispered to Chloe to which Chloe nodded and Rachel left, knowing that she might well be on the clock and not only from Nathan's injuries

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All our main characters have been introduced now... I think


	6. Breaking and entering

“Hey, Nate, you okay, dude?” Chloe nudged Nathan's shoulder and he let out a pained gasp. “Sorry, dude.” Chloe winced, looking around the homely looking dorm room that she would never get bored of. Nathan was led in the recovery position on Rachel's bed and Chloe had been tasked with watching over her while Rachel went to do... Something. _Fuck, hurry the fuck up, Rach_  
“Why...” Nathan attempted to breathe in to continue the sentence but was unable to since every single breath caused the sensation of a fire incinerating his lungs to worsen. The best case scenario would be that he had several broken ribs, the worst would be collapsed lungs and the like. Either way, Nathan's chest felt as if it was on fire and even breathing exacerbated the burning. “Why did you help me?”  
“It was the right thing to do” Chloe smiled honestly at him  
“But I made fun of your friend every day,” Nathan argued, “I called her 'slow’ and 'a retard' almost every day, you should hate me” Nathan knew he was a sinner and therefore deserved the beating he received but the things he had called Max only furthered his desire for punishment  
“While it's true that I don't like you very much, Twitch, I still don't believe you deserved whatever the fuck happened to you. That being said, you not only picked on Max every damn day, you singled her out because she can't do what the other kids can do. She's a slow reader, she can't write very well, she's clumsy, she can't ride a bike and doesn’t talk very much and therefore you're an asshole for making fun of it but if that was karma's work then karma was a little too harsh on you.” Nathan could hardly speak, he was almost speechless at Chloe's words. “Why the fuck were you beaten like that anyway?”  
“T... Thank you, Chloe” Nathan coughed and yelped. “It hurts!!” He writhed slightly while gasping, trying to find a better position to lie in. Nathan shook his head, he didn't want to talk about why he had been beaten, after what he had been through he didn't trust anyone with that secret anymore  
“I know, I'm going to try to find you some help, okay?” Chloe stood and moved towards the door while Nathan continued to gasp.  
“Don't go...” he breathed

*****

Rachel stood outside the building that was quickly shaping up to be a house of horrors, Saint Annabeth's Home for Vulnerable Children. She gulped slightly then resolved to get what she had to do over and done with as quickly as she could. Rachel stepped up to the wall with the wooden latticework she had witnessed Chloe use as a ladder to get back into the orphanage under the radar when she had been off smoking or drinking. More often than not she went drinking and smoked both pot and cigarettes with Rachel but occasionally she did so with some of the skater posse she had somehow become a part of. Rachel quickly scaled the latticework while smirking slightly, Mr. Jefferson might have liked Chloe but he still insisted that she must be back before evening communion at six PM despite Chloe having nothing but contempt for such things. She slipped into the storage room that had seemingly been abandoned for years and crept towards the door that was, fortunately, unlocked. The blonde ducked back warily as two children passed by helping a third to walk toward another room, one with a red cross on the door, a medical room. Staying where she was, Rachel listened in with disbelief as she heard the two children explain how they had found the third slumped in the tub with water that was stained red from her blood. “It really is a fuckin' house of horrors” Rachel growled angrily, _how could any child be left in such a shitty situation that they'd willingly harm themselves by an orphanage that should be used to working with vulnerable kids?_ She was _pissed_. Despite her desire to help the young girl who had been carried into the nurse's office, she had a job to do.  
“Yes, that's okay. I'll look at it and patch her up, promise.” The nurse spoke in a soothing voice to the three girls then the girl was taken in by the nurse and the two other girls retreated back down the corridor.  
“Fuck me” Rachel grumbled, observing all the Christian themed drawings and posters that covered most of the walls. Averting her eyes from what she considered to be brainwashing she pulled out a picture of Chloe's best friend, Max and studied it, memorizing every detail from the freckles to the blue eyes. She then hid the photograph in her boot before continuing on.

*****

Max had been called into Mr. Jefferson's office, she stood nervously by the door even after she had asked to sit by Jefferson. “Do you know where Chloe is, Max?”  
Max shook her head, her eyes still on the ground  
“She didn't come back for lunch?”  
Max shook her head again. “N-No”  
Jefferson smiled, “I know how hard it is for you to speak to anyone who isn't Chloe, so I appreciate your words”  
Max merely nodded and there was a knock on the door. “Sorry, Mr. Jefferson, she isn't in classes at Blackwell either.” One of the many administrative assistants had entered Jefferson's office without being called in, providing further bad news.  
“Max, Max, don't worry, we'll find her” Jefferson reassured Max. Max stared at the assistant, her eyes wide with fear, she hadn't ever been left alone before.  
“We believe it has something to do with the Amber girl” The assistant whispered  
“Oh. Her.” Jefferson grumbled. “Stupid bitch.” Max's eyes widened in shock, she hadn't ever heard Jefferson swear before and she didn't like it  
“I'll let Mr. Prescott know” The assistant moved back toward the door, Rachel took the opportunity to move toward the door and listen in while Jefferson continued to soothe Max

Max’s eyes fell on the gap in the door and her eyes met with Rachel whose eyes widened in surprise.  
Max meanwhile lifted her finger toward the door and screamed. Jefferson hurried over to the door and wrenched it open, his eyes falling on Rachel who had fallen back in shock. “Rachel Amber” he hissed, his hand moving steadily toward his back.  
“Oh, shit”  
Max's eyes widened even further as she saw Jefferson pull out a gun and aim it at Rachel

*****

Knock knock.  
“What?” Chloe growled through the door at whoever was outside  
“Chloe? Is Rachel with you?” A feminine voice called out  
“Nope, why?”  
“Cos Mr. Madsen is looking for her, that's why. Something about a boy in the girl’s dorm?”  
“Uh, hang on Steph” Chloe unlocked the door and let Steph in. _Damn you, Icky Vicky. That stupid bitch can't keep herself to herself_  
“What the fuck, Chloe?! What the fuck happened to him?” Steph’s eyes had widened as soon as her eyes fell upon Nathan who was still bleeding slightly and looked as if he had received the worst beating she had ever seen, which he had  
“He had the shit beaten out of him by Mark Jefferson and Sean Prescott”  
“What the fuck...?”  
“I know. We gotta get him to the hospital in Portland”  
“Oh right, where's Rachel?” Steph repeated  
“Off somewhere, she said she'd be back soon”  
“I'll go to Brooke, she can keep the entire campus under observation with that drone of hers and the fact that she hacked the security cameras, Mr. Wells is in cahoots with Mr. Prescott after all”  
Chloe nodded and snuck a peek out of the window, lifting Rachel's blind just enough to see out. She saw the entire courtyard was deserted. _Empty, for now._ Chloe mused. _Hopefully, they’ll take awhile longer and won't know about the truck_


	7. Escape the Orphanage

Rachel scrambled back away from the man who stood over her. _He has a gun!!!_ Max remained where she was, she didn't know the blonde but Jefferson had a gun and she was terrified, at that moment she was more terrified of him than she was of the stranger. _Please don't shoot me...!_ Rachel was trying her hardest not to cry and was too petrified to even open her mouth to plead for her life  
“Don't fucking move” Jefferson snarled. Rachel froze, her eyes fixed upon the gun. “You must be Rachel Amber, right?” Jefferson’s voice was filled with unbridled hatred, he loathed the girl who, in his opinion, must've been influencing the children under his care. In his eyes she was responsible for spreading her homosexuality and other vile sinful thoughts throughout the orphanage, Chloe didn't seem affected but Nathan only started showing signs of his sinful thoughts after Chloe had met Rachel. Homosexuality was a banned subject in the orphanage yet outside the relative 'safety' of the orphanage Jefferson knew that young adults were spreading their disgusting deviance throughout the world. “Nathan never showed any sign of sinful deviance before Chloe met you. Fortunately, Chloe is world aware and thankfully could see how disgusting it is. Nathan, on the other hand, was naive and inexperienced, it your influence has poisoned his mind, what happened to him was your fault”  
“B-but...” Max squeaked, despite the fact that she was terrified. She knew nobody other than Chloe had met Rachel, she didn't want the stranger to get hurt and she was immobilized by fear once she saw Jefferson's furious expression  
Rachel's mouth opened and closed. She alone knew who Chloe loved. Chloe, being fairly naive thanks to her upbringing hadn't recognized it as love but Rachel knew that Jefferson's beliefs about Chloe weren't entirely true. Chloe had feelings for Rachel and Max after all, that fact was easily apparent to anyone who was able to engage Chloe in a proper conversation since Chloe wouldn't stop talking about Max and Rachel, often blushing when they were mentioned. Fortunately for Chloe, Jefferson didn't believe Rachel was worth acknowledging and that Max was Chloe's best friend. Rachel wasn't about to admit to any of that though, she wouldn't throw her friend under the bus no matter what Jefferson did to her  
“Shut up, Max!” Jefferson shouted, his eyes flicking to Max for a fraction of a second which gave Rachel a chance, once Jefferson was distracted she took the chance without hesitation and rolled to the side. Jefferson, catching the movement out of the corner of his eye shot at where Rachel was, there was a crack and suddenly a bullet hole was in the floor where Rachel had been led only moments before. “Sinners like you need to be punished!” Jefferson spat in his rage, following Rachel out into the corridor. “It’s your fault that Nathan is a deviant, a sinner!”

 _Fuck you!_ Rachel seethed while she waited until Jefferson was out in the corridor then slammed into him. There was a small crack and another hole appeared in the floor beneath the two of them, the impact of Rachel slamming into Jefferson had caused Jefferson to squeeze the trigger of the silenced gun resulting in another bullet being fired. Jefferson overbalanced and fell to the floor, dropping the gun. Rachel didn't hesitate once she had an opening, she kicked him in the face immediately to knock him out and turned to Max, trying to avoid looking at the two bullet holes in the floor beneath her. “Come on, Max!! Let's get outta here!!”  
Max shook her head fearfully and backed away from Rachel as quickly as she could. “N-no” she was looking at the bullet holes with her nose crinkled up slightly at the acrid smell from the fired gun  
“It's not safe for you here!!” Rachel pleaded, having retrieved the gun and moved forward into Jefferson's office toward Max while dragging the unconscious Jefferson into the office. She grabbed a handful of paperwork regarding Nathan then reached out for Max. “I can't leave you here, Max” she pleaded, “it's not safe. I know you don't know me, Max but Chloe’s my friend, she sent me”  
“C-Chloe?” Max's eyes widened in recognition and she moved forward, trusting Rachel the moment she dropped Chloe's name.  
“Yeah, Chloe sent me” _What’s... What's wrong with Max?_ Rachel had immediately realized that Max was different from her and Chloe and she knew she had to find out why Max was different since Chloe hadn't told her much about it, whatever _it_ is. Max had reached out and was holding on to Rachel's arm for dear life as Rachel rummaged through the files in Jefferson's office, taking the ones for Nathan, Chloe and Max. She then turned to Max, “Where's the records office?” she asked noticing how Max had gone from shying away and staying as far away from Rachel as she could to trusting her completely once she had stated that Chloe was her friend. _Oh, Max, you're so trusting of anyone who knows Chloe's name, even though it's rather adorable this could be a problem. Is Max autistic or something?_ Max pulled on Rachel's arm and led her toward the office in which all the records were kept. Once she had led Rachel to the office she looked up at the door warily, aware that she had led Rachel to Sean Prescott’s suite and that if they were caught they would be in so much trouble. She pointed at the door then reached out to try the door which was locked. Rachel picked up a nearby fire extinguisher and broke the lock with a single solid blow to the door, causing Max to flinch in surprise. “Come on, Max” she tugged Max inside just seconds before several kids rounded the corner, Rachel shut the door so that they wouldn't be seen. Prescott was not at home in his suite much to Rachel's relief and she moved forward toward the filing cabinets, binders, safe and computer.

“Max” Rachel began, “do you know how to use a computer?” Rachel whispered  
“A-a computer?” Max's eyes wandered around the office trying to identify the piece of equipment Rachel named before shaking her head.  
“You’ve never seen one before have you?” Rachel asked and Max shook her head. “Do you know how to spell your name?” Max nodded, “Chloe's?” Max nodded again, “and Nathan’s?” She shook her head. _Well, at least she knows some of it..._ Rachel thought sadly, _Poor Max_. “Max, can you look through those and pull out any binder with your or Chloe's names on it?” she nodded slowly but wouldn't let go of Rachel's arm. “Max, I'll be over here on the computer, I promise I won't be going anywhere” she vowed  
“O-okay.” Max nodded, moving to the filing cabinets to start pulling out binders. Between them, Max and Rachel pulled a few files out, two with Nathan's name on them that Rachel found and one each for Chloe and Max.  
Rachel looked through Max's binder quickly and found a stunning lack of information regarding Max's clear needs. _Has she not ever been to any kind of school? There’s nothing in here about her grades or even her clearly apparent special needs..._  
“Nice, Max. Well done” Rachel smiled at Max who beamed at her happily, she clicked a few more times with the mouse, copying files to a USB. “Can you carry those files?” Rachel asked, handing her a few of the binders they collected. Max nodded eagerly, taking the binders under one arm while clinging to Rachel with the other. “Come on, let's get the fuck outta here!” Rachel started leading Max out of the room then crept back toward the room she used to get in, stopping off briefly in Max and Chloe's room to pick up one or two things that Max wanted to grab for herself and Chloe

*****

Chloe was sat on the couch in Rachel's room, Nathan had fallen asleep soon after Alyssa and Stella finished patching him up. Nathan's arms were wrapped and splinted with a broken photography tripod, Alyssa and Stella had also bandaged up what wounds they could then retreated back to their rooms with Chloe's whispered thanks. Chloe had been sat on the couch ever since Stella and Alyssa had left, tapping her foot in anxiety and nervously eyeing her cell phone which was silent. Not knowing where Rachel had rushed off to, Chloe had no choice but to wait for Rachel to come back or contact her. Brooke had remained silent too though Chloe had seen Brooke's drone fly past the window a few times, keeping an eye on things. Chloe knew that the two big bads that she had to avoid were Jefferson and Prescott however she didn't realize that David Masden, the head of security at Blackwell, was checking through the camera footage to see if Chloe and Rachel were on campus.

Rachel and Max clambered out of the truck and ran to the front of the dorms having texted Alyssa to ask her to open the door to the dorms. She did so and Rachel and Max ran inside as fast as they could, shutting the door behind them with a sigh. Max cowered behind Rachel as she thanked Alyssa for opening the door for them. Once Rachel had shooed Alyssa away and started down the corridor, Max began to look around as Rachel led her to her room. Rachel opened her door and holding it open for Max whose eyes widened and a happy grin appeared on her face as soon as her eyes fell on Chloe. Max pranced forward and wrapped her arms around Chloe without hesitation, “Hey, sweetie” Chloe cooed at Max who had already relaxed in her arms.

Happily reunited, the two girls forgot about the situation they were in until there was a knock at the door moments after Chloe's phone buzzed with a message from Brooke

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm open to suggestions regarding the portrayal of Max. Yes, she does have special needs but I'm unsure as to what they are at this time but Max never got tested since she never went to school. I've always wondered why Max had the IEP, was it for her introverted nature? Social anxiety disorder or other mental disorder? Or for Special needs? 
> 
> This is my first time trying to write a character with special needs so I might not be good at it yet


	8. Escape the Dorms

“Brooke” Chloe immediately called the other girl with a worried frown.  
“Chloe, Victoria went to Mr. Madsen” Brooke had picked up on the second ring and the worry in her voice was immediately apparent  
“What do you mean?” Chloe shuffled over to the window to sneak a peek outside by lifting one of the slats of Rachel's blind  
“Mr. Madsen knows about the boy in the dorms.” Brooke warned seriously, “I saw him and Victoria talking using my drone, Madsen went straight to the principal after Victoria told him. As far as I can see he's just arrived outside the dorms”  
“Oh, right. Shit” Chloe hung up and looked around the dorm room, gazing at the two girls that had just arrived. “Rach, about damn time you got here... Madsen is on to us, thanks to that bitch”  
“Oh, fuck, I just _love_ Icky Vicky.” Rachel groaned. “Chloe, Jefferson pulled a fucking _gun_ on me”  
“That... Asshole!!” Chloe growled angrily, clenching her fist. _I'll fucking tear his balls off for that!!_  
“No time, Chloe. We gotta go” Rachel knew her friend very well after all and suspected that the teen's thoughts would've immediately turned to ones of revenge  
“Right” Chloe stood, pulling Max close to her protectively while rummaging around in Rachel's underwear drawer  
“C-Chloe?” Max mumbled, embarrassed that Chloe was going through her friend’s underwear drawer  
“Max?” Chloe looked back at the innocent girl who was sat on the couch while Nathan’s breaths continued heaving from the bed, the beaten boy was clearly in a lot of pain but the girls had nothing stronger than tylenol  
“W-what are you doing?”  
“Searching”  
“Oh” Max mumbled  
Chloe smirked, “ah hah! There you are you tricky things.” She pulled two blades from deep in the underwear drawer and then retrieved a smallish metal case. “I'm glad you decided to keep this shit after your adventures, Rach”  
“Mhm, me too. Good thing since Jeffershit certainly upped the ante when he pulled that gun on me” Rachel looked perturbed, “you always said how nice he was to you?”  
“Yeah, well I'm reconsidering that now” Chloe deadpanned  
Max just stayed nuzzled into Chloe's side, not really able to keep track of the conversation around her. “We also grabbed Max's camera”  
“Her analog one?”  
“Unfortunately not, it would've been too bulky. We grabbed her small digital”  
“Shit, I'm sorry” Chloe turned to look down at Max with a sorrowful expression on her face  
“There wouldn’t be room in the truck, as is Max is gonna have to ride on my lap”  
Ignoring or simply not understanding the suggestive smirk of the blonde she had just met, Max pulled something out from a bag she had grabbed, revealing her Polaroid. “Oh, Rach. It seems you have a lot to learn about my Max!” Chloe smirked at Rachel who blushed  
“Alright, I concede”  
“I've never known you to concede anything, Rach”  
“You’ve only known me a few months, Chloe” there was a sudden knock on the door. “But you're right” she hissed, pointing the blade at the door, slowly advancing on it  
“Chloe” a voice hissed, “Madsen and security are definitely on their way, you gotta go, _now_!!”  
“Okay, Brooke” Chloe replied. She looked pointedly at Rachel who sighed  
“Bad news?”  
“Madsen is coming” Chloe scowled, she sure hated that man  
“Shit” Rachel had a similar look of intense distaste on her face as well, they shared the sentiment  
“Yup. Looks like we gotta leave, now” Chloe instructed, taking control of the situation

Chloe and Rachel stood, Rachel grabbed the box and unlocked it, removing a gun and hiding it down the back of her pants while ignoring Max's wide terrified eyes. Chloe meanwhile grabbed a knife and put it in her back pocket then pulled Max closer. “Come on” Max nodded obediently, she hadn’t really stood up to Chloe's whims often before unless she _really_ didn't want to do what Chloe wanted to do. Recently though, since Chloe started to go to school she started to grow up, encouraging Max to voice her opinion more often to help her to begin to think for herself. Chloe still had a certain tone of voice that she used when Max _had_ to do as she said, Chloe was using that tone with Max as she spoke and Max knew she _had_ to obey Chloe else something bad could happen  
Rachel grabbed Nathan's left arm under the shoulder, trying to avoid hurting him while Chloe did the same on Nathan's other side as gently as she could, clinging to Max with her free arm. “Let’s go” Rachel whispered and pulled the other three toward her door

“Oh!! Mr. Madsen, Mr. Madsen!!” The unmistakable sound of Brooke and Dana creating a diversion echoed through the hall  
“What's wrong, girls?” he asked in a gruff voice  
“I thought I saw someone going up to the roof, Mr. Madsen” Dana called, feigning panic  
“What?” Madsen paused in confusion  
_Damn, that girl’s a fantastic actress. Still, nothing compared to Rach though..._  
“I think someone’s on the roof!!”  
Madsen’s eyes widened in realization and off he hurried. Brooke retreated to Rachel's dorm door and knocked on it three times. “All clear, girls”  
Chloe indicated for Max to open the door which she did so quickly. “Stay with us, Nate” Rachel whispered, Brooke's eyes widened and her mouth fell open at the sight of the bruised and bloody boy.  
“What the fuck?!”  
“See why we gotta get the fuck outta town?” Chloe whispered, trying to reduce any chance of them being caught  
“Yeah, I get it now, go!!” Brooke pushed them toward the fire exit and the four girls escaped through the door seconds before Madsen returned.  
“What the hell are you girls playing at?!” he growled. “There was nobody up there and the door was locked!”

The girls half guided half carried Nathan out from behind the dorms and immediately spotted several security guards milling around. “Oh, shit...”

*****

“We have to think ahead, Mark. If I were them I’d run. They have to go to a hospital because of Nathan” he spat the name out venomously, “but I don't think they're stupid enough to go to Arcadia General”  
“So we have to break out our contingency plans, Mr. Prescott?”  
“Yes, Mark. Go to work”


	9. Never look back

“Looks like we gotta bite the bullet and go for it, Chlo” Rachel looked tense, scared even. This wasn't her first time running away from home but it was the first time she ran for her safety with abusive people snapping at her heels  
“I guess so... Max, stay close okay?” The shortest girl nodded, “and Nate, try to stay awake.” Nathan merely groaned. All too soon the two girls had started running for the back of the Prescott dorms, bouncing Nathan up and down and leaving Max in their dust.  
“Shit, Max!” Rachel hissed, looking back over her shoulder to see Max trying her hardest to keep up with them. “D’ya think you can manage to carry Max?” she asked her blunette friend  
“I'm strong enough, why would I need to carry Max?” Chloe replied in her confusion  
“Cos if you don't she'll get caught!!” Rachel replied simply yet urgently to an angry growl from the blunette. Chloe would sooner kill than let anything happen to her Max  
“Max, hold on tight” Chloe instructed as she wrapped her arms around the petite brunette and hoisted her up into her arms.  
“Chlo... What?” Max whispered timidly yet pulled herself into the blunette automatically, wrapping her hands up in the taller girl’s band shirt without really thinking  
“There, Max” Chloe soothed. Despite Max being twelve, she was soothed by being in Chloe's arms and it was immediately apparent since her tense posture loosened and her wide fearful eyes relaxed somewhat  
“Wow, you have the gift, Chlo” Rachel commented, hefting Nathan up into her arms so she could carry him without Chloe's assistance, trying her hardest to ignore his pained whimpers. Chloe looked over at her a questioning expression on her face. “Later, Chlo” Rachel added then set off around the back of Blackwell at a jog, heading for the wooded area that would hopefully provide protection from prying eyes. Nathan breathed in sharply on every step, realizing the need to stay silent regardless of how much Rachel jolted him and trying his best to remain absolutely silent

“Well shit. We gotta for four people into this hunk of junk” Chloe commented, poking the truck's tattered bench seat with mild irritation  
“Uh huh, you're driving”  
“Aw, maaaaaaan, don't do this to me, Rach!!” Chloe pleaded as they lifted Nathan into the truck. Nathan yelped but was otherwise compliant. Once they had both lifted Nathan into the truck and had his seatbelt on, Rachel dragged Chloe around the truck and despite her earlier claims shoved her in first  
“Max, you're next, you sit on Chloe, okay?” Max nodded and clambered in, succeeding on getting in in her third attempt. Rachel followed them in, started the truck in the usual fashion and pulled away from Blackwell as several security guards appeared on the steps that led down to the parking lot.  
“Fuck, that was too close” Chloe sighed, wrapping her arms tighter around Max, her seatbelt already tightly around the pair. Chloe felt a little crushed but that was a small price to pay for Max's safety  
“Yup. Now let's get the fuck outta here!” Rachel cautiously put her foot down and the throttle rewarded her with a stable rumble, the engine running smoothly. “How far to Portland, Chloe?”  
“Eighty miles, a good ninety minutes if not more”  
“Fuck, we can't risk speeding or getting caught. Hang on in there, Nathan” Rachel, resigned to the wait sighed and settled down for the long drive.  
Nathan's arms ached and protesting every little bump, and Finally able to protest freely he whimpered and groaned at every jolt or bump until he mercifully fell asleep a half hour into the journey

“Well, here we are, Portland.” Rachel's whispered statement broke apart the debate that Chloe and Rachel were having in whispered tones since Max and Nathan were still asleep. Chloe had suggested a Portland hospital using her secret phone she had gotten without the knowledge of anyone at the orphanage. Chloe argued that the hospital, Doernbecher Children's Hospital would be better since it was a pediatric hospital, Rachel was arguing that the Prescotts and anyone else tailing them would expect that so Oregon State Hospital was by far a better alternative. To counter Rachel’s argument Chloe then added it would take almost another hour to get to the State Hospital. “Fuck” Rachel scowled, having pulled up she tried to find another option only finding a few private hospitals which she knew would be far more expensive and one other general hospital. Eventually, Chloe added her discovery that the children's hospital had a specific program in place for child abuse which tipped the debate in her favor. Max, who had sat quietly asleep on Chloe's lap turned into Chloe a bit more and murmured sleepily  
“Come on, Rach. Don't wanna wake Max” Rachel nodded and started up the truck again, Chloe providing the directions in lieu of the GPS that the two had neglected to buy  
“Do you think the CPS people will pay for Nathan's treatment?” Rachel asked in a hushed, worried tone  
“CPS?” Chloe parroted blankly  
“Child Protective Services, the department responsible for dealing with situations like this” Rachel elaborated, indicating Nathan. Chloe nodded before Rachel continued, “I mean if Sean is smart he won't let people know that Nathan is missing” Chloe raised an eyebrow at her, “of course he’ll want Nathan back but probably only to beat the shit out of him again, but he won't want that getting out. Chloe, that dungeon looked like the sorta place you go to die” Rachel explained. Chloe closed her eyes, she had, of course, imagined being dragged off to that place, understanding that if they were caught that was likely to be where she and Max ended up. “You two, on the other hand, are likely to be reported as missing” she concluded  
“So you think CPS will help pay Nathan's medical bills?” Chloe asked. Even she knew something about how the American medical system worked, on the basis of overpriced treatment and extortionate services  
“I hope so, either that or that his treatment won't cost too much. I mean I have my ten grand of savings but we'll need at least two grand of that for our immediate plans. That will barely cover us though, once we leave Portland I won't be able to make any more withdrawals”  
Chloe frowned, about to ask why she wouldn't be able to do so but pointed out at the hospital, her eyes widening,. The hospital looked quite aesthetically pleasing but that was the most she knew about a hospital having never had to be to one before, not even when Max broke her wrist. “Looks like a nice place” she whispered

Rachel, ever on the move leaped out of the truck and sprinted off to the reception as soon as she pulled up outside the building. “We need help” she panted, “the truck out there, our friend, he needs help”  
The receptionist nodded and called in doctors who moved over to the truck with a gurney, finding Nathan, still asleep and breathing shallowly. They transferred him on to the gurney while trying to gain all the required information from the frazzled and frankly terrified trio of girls. They, or at least Chloe and Rachel had told them that they didn't know Nathan's last name nor his birthday but that they had found him in some kind of detached basement where he had had the shit beaten out of him. Unable to provide a location, the girls were forced to wait in the waiting area until Nathan was treated and awake again. “Your friend, Nathan.” a doctor had sat down in front of the trio, observing for a second. Max had curled into Chloe and was sound asleep, clinging on to the front of her shirt as she always did. “He's gonna be okay, he has two broken arms, a whole host of cracked or broken ribs and a concussion, not to mention all the cuts burns and whip injuries. CPS has been informed and they'll be here soon to assess him. In the meantime Nathan is asleep, and I strongly suggest the three of you go get some coffee and food, you two look dead on your feet. Rachel and Chloe nodded tiredly and after gently waking Max, made their way out of the hospital to the truck. Clambering in, Chloe looked up the nearest coffee shop on her phone and gave Rachel directions to it.


	10. Desperate times, desperate measures

“Well, I'm glad you got him here, Ms. Doe” The CPS social worker smiled at Rachel  
“Anytime, Mrs. Smith” Rachel, who had persuaded the lawyer she had contacted to allow her to take the pseudonym of Ms. Doe  
“Call me Kristine” The social worker replied  
“Okay, Kristine. The name’s Ra-Jane. Jane Doe” _Fuck!!_  
Since the pleasantries were out of the way, the social worker decided to get right down to business. “What were the circumstances of his situation?” she asked  
“Kristine, we found him in a literal dungeon” Rachel explained, pulling out one of the photographs she had told Chloe to print out while she was out rescuing Max  
“A dungeon?” Kristine asked then took the photograph, her eyes widened at the sight of the gloomy torture dungeon that Prescott and Jefferson were using. _Holy fuck!!_  
“Yeah, it was in the middle of nowhere in a wood near where we all lived” Rachel added  
“Where you lived? Where, may I ask?” Kristine asked  
“Ahem” the lawyer coughed, “I believe it was my client’s wish not to reveal where they're from because of concerns of retaliation”  
“Right. Can Nathan himself back up any of your claims that his father was abusive?” Kristine continued on without stumbling over her words  
“Just look at him, Kristine... It should be obvious” Rachel replied with a raised eyebrow  
“I understand. Do you know the name of Nathan's father?”  
“Yes. Sean Adams”  
“Adams, you say?”  
“Uh huh” _Oh shit... Are the CPS office crooked too?!_ Rachel felt a joy of panic but the panic was quickly dwarfed by an overwhelming relief that she had insisted that Max and Chloe wait in the coffee shop they had discovered. If she found herself in difficulty she had instructed Chloe to take the truck and not look back  
“Right you are...” the officer nodded with a reassuring smile. “Very well, it seems that your friend has indeed been abused and as such, I'll make sure to find him a foster home”  
“Thank you”

Fifteen minutes later, Rachel was sat across from Chloe and Max in the coffee shop. The latter was curled into Chloe's side as always, bunching up Chloe's tee lightly in her petite hands. “What... A day” Rachel sighed out, slumping back into her chair with a cup of incredibly strong coffee by her hand. “I could sleep for a million years...”  
“I guess, at least it's been full of excitement?” Chloe whispered, trying not to wake Max who had finally fallen asleep having not been to sleep since Rachel rescued her from the orphanage more than two days before  
“I want to hit Jefferson so hard for nearly having Max” Rachel seethed  
“How long until Nathan gets out of hospital?” Chloe asked Rachel, changing the subject as fast as she could  
“I don't know, today? Maybe tomorrow. They put casts on his arms and bandaged up all his cuts and so on. There's not much they can do for the broken ribs or the concussion which wasn't too severe but he seems to be out of danger”  
“Good. I think I’d like to visit him before he gets taken into care” Chloe admitted in a quiet voice  
“You always used to whinge about Nathan” Rachel replied with a small smirk  
“Yeah, well. I guess going through shit like that changes your opinion”  
“Mhm. We can go visit Nate once I've finished this coffee. That will also let Max sleep some more”  
“Okay, what's the plan after that?”  
“I guess we try to find a school that's equipped to deal with Max?”  
“ _Deal with Max_ , Rach? What the hell is that meant to mean?” Chloe's voice had lowered slightly and her eyes had narrowed  
“Chloe. Max isn't well” Rachel added cautiously  
“Isn't well? Oh my god is she getting sick?” Chloe’s eyes had widened again and her expression quickly became one of panic  
“No, Chlo. She's well, just... She's different from you and me. She has problems” Rachel corrected quickly, gripping Chloe's wrists without thinking to ground her  
“Problems?” the blunette raised her eyebrow, calmer but still worried  
“You told me Max never learned how to ride a bike, how she kept falling off. How Max can't read or write. I've seen how she reacts as well, her refusal to talk, her nervous habits”  
“Uh, yeah?”  
“That's not normal, Chloe”  
“Not normal? What do you mean? I thought that was just Max”  
“What do you know about dyslexia, autism, or selective mutism?”  
“Uh, wut?”  
“I see... If you don't know then Prick-scott truly was neglectful” Rachel clenched her fists. “Max might have what people call special needs. Some are considered to be mental disorders, others are developmental disorders”  
“Rach, slow down... Please”  
“Max developed differently to you and I. You're pretty much gifted. I’m just average and Max here”  
“Rach... Are you calling Max stupid?” Chloe had balled her hands into fists, so tightly that she might have drawn blood  
“Oh hella no,” Rachel quickly added, “Max isn't stupid!! People think she is cos she's different, unable to talk, unable to read or write, unable to do math and so on, but she just learns differently!!” She explained, correcting herself. “She just hasn’t been given a chance!”  
“I want to help her, Rach”  
“And to do that we need to get her to a school and get her tested”  
Chloe nodded quickly, eager to help her best friend. “Then let's do it, Rach. We're here in Portland so... Tomorrow we’ll search for schools”

Ten minutes later, Rachel spoke again. “Come on, we'd better go see Nate before that social worker woman comes back” Rachel smiled at Chloe who nodded and started to gently attempt to wake Max who merely nuzzled into her more.  
“Maxi, Maxi, time to wake up sweetie” Max mumbled and opened her eyes slowly, blearily  
“Ch-Chlo?”  
“I'm here, Max” Chloe soothed her gently. “Come on, Maxi we have to get going” Max watched Chloe closely, asking where they were going with her eyes. “We’re going back to the hospital to see Nate” Max nodded slowly. Yes, Nathan had bullied her back in the orphanage but since Chloe and Rachel had rescued him he had become more accepting toward Max's issues. Besides, Max knew Chloe would beat the shit out of him if he tried anything

“Hey, Nate” Rachel smiled at him. The trio of girls had just arrived at Nathan's room to see him sitting up in bed with a cup of water on his table  
“Hey” Nathan tried to smile but it came out more a grimace. “Glad you could stop by”  
The four sat in companionable silence until an emergency news bulletin came on. “ _Rachel Amber, a honors student at Blackwell Academy and second in Blackwell’s rankings has kidnapped two adolescents from the orphanage in Arcadia Bay. Sean Prescott, the President of Saint Annabeth's Home for Vulnerable Children has recorded a statement asking Rachel Amber to return his daughters, Chloe and Maxine Prescott_ ”  
“Oh shit” Chloe mumbled. She was just beginning to feel safe once again but she was quickly becoming terrified  
“ _Ms. Amber, I beg you. Return my two daughters to my orphanage._ ” Prescott asked, a photograph of his face appearing on the screen while he spoke. “ _They are Vulnerable young women who need the support of me and my staff. If you do so I will make sure all criminal charges against you are minimal_ ”  
Rachel scoffed, “in your dreams, you fucking abusive asshole”  
“ _Thank you, Mr. Prescott. Rachel Amber was last seen on the campus of Blackwell Academy leading the two missing women into the dorms from where they vanished. If you see either girls currently on your screen, please call Child protective services on_ ” he read out a phone number, “ _and if you see Rachel Amber please dial 911 immediately and ask for the police._ ” With that the series of photographs ended and the usual TV schedule resumed  
“Shit...” Rachel groaned and covered her face, attracting the attention of the other three. “Chloe, Max. We gotta get outta here!!” Rachel pulled the two girls on to their feet, ignoring Max's attempts to pull away from her and free her wrist from Rachel's grasp. Rachel, continuing to grip on Chloe and Max's wrists, dragged both girls out of Nathan's room, down the corridors and out of the hospital.

“Shit!!” Rachel had noticed a police officer stood out the front of the hospital, she turned to Chloe and glared. “Go!!” she ordered. Chloe shook her head sadly, she didn't want her friend to leave them or to leave her friend. “ _Go_ , Chloe!!” She hissed. “Remember, you gotta look after Max!! You won't be able to do so if they catch you, the moment you go back to the orphanage you'll both end up in the _Dark Room_ ” While to Max ‘Dark Room' meant nothing, it clearly meant something to Chloe as she paled and started dragging Max in the opposite direction of the truck  
“I'm sorry” Chloe whispered in Rachel’s direction who wiped her eyes and took one step forward, forward into full view of the police officer

“Stop!!” The burly muscular police officer demanded. “You are under arrest!! Do not make any sudden moves, put your hands on your head and slowly walk back toward me!!” Rachel did as ordered since her friends had already disappeared off around the corner of the building and away from the truck which was no longer safe as it had been shown in the series of photographs shown during emergency news bulletin. Rachel knew they could end up homeless but at least they'd be alive, right? She had handed over what money she had and she knew Chloe and Max were carrying spare clothes and other essentials in their backpacks  
“I will not resist” Rachel stated, just about managing to pull on one of her masks to hide her distress and worry.

*****

“Oh my fucking god!? What the fuck have I done?! Shit, shit, shit!! I'm so fucking sorry!!” A young woman who was alone in her dorm room whimpered and her upper lip quivered. “I hope those two poor girls will be okay...” The usually prim and proper young woman's composure collapsed and tears ran down her cheeks while snot flowed from her nose


	11. Portland

Chloe ran on desperately, carrying Max in her arms. She didn't dare look back over her shoulder in case the police were there and aiming their guns at them. She lowered Max slightly and while that added to the strain that her arms were under, it also meant that no police officer could get a lucky shot and kill Max. Chloe had been on her feet and running for five minutes but was already getting tired. She and Max spotted a bus stop and, knowing they had no choice, Chloe put Max down and pulled up her and Max’s hoods of their hoodies to help protect their identities before walking confidently to the bus stop. _This was so much easier in my head!!_

*****

“You are under arrest and will be returned to the police department that originally ordered your arrest”  
“What exactly am I supposed to have done?” Rachel snapped at the police officer  
“You are suspected of having kidnapped two vulnerable girls from an orphanage”  
_Prescott is only putting out an amber alert for the two girls... Interesting_. Rachel stored the tidbit of information away for later use. “Isn't it too soon to be sending out an amber alert”  
“Nope. And now we have you, where are the girls?”  
“I left them in the hotel on the other side of town, I locked and barricaded the doors before I left” Rachel replied confidently  
“There, now wasn’t that easier than just running?” The officer took Rachel to the precinct and, while being driven there, she caught sight of max and Chloe stood at a bus stop wearing the new hoodies she had purchased for the duo out of the corner of her eye  
_That's my girls!! Run rings around these creeps!!_ Rachel silently cheered the duo on  
“Ms. Amber?”  
“Huh?” Rachel looked away from the bus stop to look at the slightly obese sweaty officer. “What” _the fuck_ “do you want?”  
“We will find those two girls” the officer watched Rachel with something akin to hatred on his pudgy face  
“Rot in hell”

*****

Chloe sat down on the bus next to Max who, as usual, turned toward Chloe and grabbed handfuls of her shirt. “My Maxi” Chloe whispered, gently pulling her fingers through Max's hair  
“Mmmmm” Max hummed quietly, too quiet for anyone save Chloe to hear. They had both kept their heads down once they had purchased their tickets, trying to avoid looking at the cameras in the bus. “Maxi, we gotta plan for our future” Chloe whispered. Max turned to gaze at Chloe, trusting her completely. “We have to get on a train to go to our destination. We have the money but I don't think it's a very wise decision to go there on a train”  
Max was instantly confused, her brows furrowed as she thought about what Chloe had said. If they need to get on a train then why wouldn't they get on a train? Max let out a little noise, baffled by Chloe's statement.  
“Don't worry about a thing, Maxi. Your Chlo has a plan” Max smiled and buried her head into Chloe's shoulder, reassured by Chloe's words

A half hour later, Max and Chloe clambered off the bus outside their next connection, Union station. Chloe pulled Max along past the station and they waited a short distance from the station for a few hours until a cargo train passed by. Chloe grabbed Max and hoisted her up into the train, quickly following suit and after a few attempts she managed to get aboard the train. Chloe smiled at Max proudly and pulled out a sleeping bag which she gently tucked Max up in and then led down beside her, singing a nursery rhyme that Max always enjoyed.

“The itsy bitsy spider climbed up the waterspout.  
Down came the rain  
and washed the spider out.  
Out came the sun  
and dried up all the rain  
and the itsy bitsy spider climbed up the spout again.”

Max giggled as the pair made all the hand gestures to go along with the nursery rhyme and soon her eyes were drooping. Exhausted by the excitement, Max had fallen asleep mere seconds after Chloe concluded singing. She whispered one word as she fell asleep, “Chlobear”  
Chloe smiled at her nickname, as always and gently held the tiny brunette closer. “I love you, Maxi”

*****

Many miles away, Rachel Amber winced as she was pulled out of a squad car by her handcuffed wrists. She had been expecting to go to Arcadia Bay's moderate police station to await trial yet she was being led out to her house. “Officer? What are we doing here?”  
“You've been placed under house arrest. You will be able to spend time in your own home up until you get sentenced for kidnapping Prescott's kids” the man, Anderson Berry replied. He led Rachel into the front yard and up to the door in full view of all the neighbors while Rachel hung her head in embarrassment. Berry shook his head mistaking embarrassment for shame. “You kids think you can get away with anything, don't you?” The false information about Rachel leaving Max and Chloe in the hotel had quickly been discovered to be a ruse. Rachel hadn't been very forthcoming with information and had been careful to ensure she burned the receipts and took care to hide the identifying information that was the card key before she charged and had gotten herself arrested. She had handed the card key over to Chloe and told her to put it in the trash somewhere between Portland and wherever she decided to head to  
“Ah, Anderson!” The usually calm face of Rachel's father, James was furious. Red in the face, he refused to even look at his daughter  
_Oh shit..._  
“Hello to you too, Mr. Amber. I don't understand why you wanted Rachel to be under house arrest but... We don't have to spend any taxpayer dollars on her that way.”  
“I don't know where we went wrong, my wife and I have been trying to think of what we did wrong to instigate these events but we have nothing...”

“Your ankle please, Ms. Amber” Berry demanded quietly yet with authority  
“Huh?” Rachel mumbled, still feeling like she was dying of embarrassment  
“Your ankle. I have to attach this ankle monitor, it'll make sure you stay in your house at all times”  
Rachel looked between Berry and her father, her expression all but saying _really?_ Rachel sighed and put her foot up on the couch to allow Berry to attach the device to her ankle after which Berry left

“I am very very disappointed in you, Rachel” James Amber growled at his daughter angrily. “What the hell were you thinking?!”  
Rachel remained quiet. She really wanted nothing more than to yell that she was trying to help three abused kids but she knew her father probably wouldn't believe her and that it might increase the amount of danger Chloe and Max were in so she kept quiet as her father screamed at her


	12. Twenty-three hours

“Maxi? Maxi, time to wake up”  
“Mmph” Max grumbled quietly but didn't open her eyes  
“Max, come on we gotta get off the train soon”  
Max didn't know it but she had been asleep for a solid eighteen hours. Since they didn't really know when they'd be arriving at their destination, Chloe decided that she'd wake Max a few hours ahead of their suspected arrival time. “Sleeeeeeep” she whispered  
“Max, come on, wake up please” Chloe raised her hands and flexed her fingers, when Max shook her head again in disagreement with her eyes still closed, Chloe stuck her fingers into Max's neck and started tickling.  
“Eeeeee!!” Max squealed, her eyes opening wide from shock as she wriggled, rolling over to attempt to escape Chloe's fingers.  
“Good morning, Maxi” Chloe chuckled, pulling Max back into a hug  
“Chlo...” Max replied, nuzzling into her best friend.  
“Yes, Maxi?” Chloe smiled down at Max, holding her close and squeezing her slightly like she knew Max enjoyed  
“We home?” Max asked  
“No, Maxi. We can't go home” Chloe replied  
“Oh. Why?”  
“Because they aren’t very nice people. You saw what they did to Nate” Max tilted her head slightly, questioningly. “Jefferson and Prescott did that to him” Chloe indicated her arms and mimed punching, Max's eyes widened in realization  
_Mr. Jefferson and father hurt Nathan?!_  
“Jefferson and Prescott took Nate to a place they called The _Dark Room_ , and Jesus fucking Christ” Max winced a bit at the blasphemy and swearing, as she always did, “was I glad you weren't there to see it!” Chloe looked at Max, the love she had for the younger girl clearly visible in her eyes. Ever since Max had moved into her room at the orphanage, Chloe had felt responsible for and protective toward her, like a big sister. Chloe had rapidly discovered that being protective toward someone sometimes meant hiding the truth from them, so that's what Chloe did. She hid how much the names that Nathan called Max bothered her, she hid how mad Nathan made her and she suppressed the urges to beat Nathan senseless. She shielded Max from the bullying and teasing by acting out to attempt to keep the scathing eyes of their peers off of Max, something which Jefferson seemed to understand for some reason  
“Dark Room?” Max whispered the two words. She knew the phrase from her photography books that Chloe occasionally came back to the orphanage with  
“Yes, Max. Dark Room” Chloe had decided, again, to conceal the truth from Max. Maybe one day she would tell Max everything but that day wasn’t going to be that day. The mere connection between the dark rooms in Max's books and Prescott's Dark Room would destroy Max's world. _Photography is her passion_. Chloe thought, while she looked over at the small digital camera trying to figure out how she'd keep the thing going. The digital camera had removable memory but she had purchased a huge memory card for it with money that Rachel had loaned her so that wasn't likely to be an issue but charging it would be. _I'll think of something..._ Chloe absently pulled her boot off to check on the money she had been given. Aside from the few dollars they had spent on their bus tickets which Chloe had paid for out of the change in her wallet, the full amount Rachel had withdrawn from the ATM remained in her boot. _Two and a half grand..._ Even Chloe knew that wasn't a lot of money

Making a snap decision, Chloe pulled out one of the hundred dollar bills from her boot and put it in her wallet. Having hidden roughly half the bills in each boot in the hospital she had kept the money hidden there and away from prying eyes. “This will have to do us for awhile, Max” Chloe spoke to the other girl who she knew had no concept of money. “We’re gonna get into town and get a motel for the night. That hundred dollars plus what I have left in my wallet should cover the cost of a motel for a single night. Fuck it.” She pulled out a second hundred dollar bill, “we’ll get a motel room for two nights. Should give us a chance to rest up but after that, we can't possibly afford to stay in a motel. We might be able to get away with doing so every few months just to get a bed and a shower but other than that...” she looked away, down at the floor, “we simply can't afford it. We gotta think about changing clothes and stuff as well, nothing expensive and functionality over fashion. I gotta get rid of this hair dye as well, probably ought to dye it differently...” she trailed off into silence once again. Max rubbed her hand up and down Chloe's arm to try and comfort the stressed out blunette.  
“I trust you” was all Max whispered but the three words hit Chloe like a freight train.  
_Shit... Am I really ready for this?!_ Chloe took a deep breath, breathing it in then it again. _I have gotta be ready for this. Max is likely to be completely dependent upon me! I have to think of how best to keep her safe, from now on, she comes first_. Rachel had already talked briefly about what they'd do when they arrived at their destination, she had planned to withdraw more money before they left Portland but the police had destroyed that plan. Homeless shelters had been one of the older girl's discussion points. Originally, Rachel had hoped to be able to get a job so that they could stay in a motel for awhile until Chloe, who was two years younger than the sixteen-year-old Rachel, was old enough to get a job. At that point, Rachel planned to get an apartment, hopefully with a friend of hers’ help. Chloe had no idea who this friend was nor what they looked like since they had been Rachel's friend from before she moved to Arcadia Bay when her father became District Attorney. “We can't risk going to any of the homeless shelters” Chloe sighed, “that'll be one of the first places they look for us.” Max nodded, listening intently to every word Chloe said, understanding what she could and memorizing every word. 

Chloe looked at her watch, it was coming up on three PM and she knew the train would take almost an entire day to get to their destination, approximately twenty-three hours. Max had been awake for five hours and she had been awake for six. Chloe had only slept a few hours at a time before waking up again to check the time and to make sure Max was okay. She looked out the side of the train at the buildings on the horizon, gigantic skyscrapers that took Chloe's breath away though she knew the peaceful nature of her ride was coming to an end, all too soon they'd be struggling to find themselves a motel for the night with their limited funds. _I can do this!_ She reminded herself of that before she felt the train beginning to slow. “Time to move, Maxi” Chloe spoke calmly despite the fact that all her senses were hypersensitive to every little noise and every small movement. Chloe and Max picked up their bags, putting them on their backs before moving to the edge of the train. In the distance, Chloe could see the train station and knew they had to get off the train before it arrived. “Together, Maxi” Chloe whispered. “One, two... Three!!” 

Both girls landed heavily on the ground with a thud. Max overbalanced and fell onto her hands and knees, dragging Chloe down with her. “Shit, Maxi are you okay?” Chloe asked urgently, crawling closer to her to check her over for injuries. Unharmed, Max smiled at Chloe and nodded, standing up. Chloe quickly rose to her feet and started walking toward the city proper. “Home?” Max whispered, looking up at the skyline of skyscrapers  
“Yes, Maxi. Los Angeles” she indicated the city sprawling out ahead of them, “is our home now.” Chloe looked at the city with a smile, trying hard not to think about what she had left behind, all her friends from Blackwell, and Rachel Amber.


	13. The first night

“Maxi”  
“Mmmm?” Chloe had led Max into the motel they had stumbled across and they quickly paid for a room. At a hundred dollars a night it wasn’t prohibitively expensive and Chloe paid upfront for two nights  
“Are you okay?” Chloe looked at Max with genuine concern clear in her eyes. That was one of the reasons Max loved Chloe, she was always checking up on her, making sure she was comfortable and as happy as she could be.  
Max nodded, “Yeah, Chlobear, 'm okay” Max's laid back relaxed smile made Chloe grin happily. Yes, they were homeless but at least they were both together.  
“Good, good. Do you want a bath?” Max nodded, “it’s almost seven, stay there on the bed or sit on the couch and I'll go run you a bath”  
Max watched Chloe move away, she had slumped on the old and worn couch to wait patiently for Chloe to fill the tub. _So happy to be here with Chloe_

Five minutes later Chloe called out to Max. “Ready, Maxi!!” Max stood and wandered through to Chloe, hugging her quickly. “You gonna be okay?”  
Max nodded with a small smile and Chloe left the room. _Stay close, Chlobear_  
“Don’t forget to wash everywhere. I can help with your hair and back if you need it” Chloe called through the door she had pulled to behind her instead of fully shutting it so she can hear better if Max needed any help. 

Chloe retreated back to the bed and snagged a notebook. “What do we need to get?” she asked herself. Max had been pretty quiet on what she wanted, she trusted Chloe to make all the right decisions for both herself and Max. Nodding, Chloe started to make a list. _Sleeping bag_. Struggling to think she groaned to herself, “Ugh fuck”

Fifteen minutes later Chloe had made a short list of things she thought they might need. _Sleeping bags, blankets, several layers of warm thermal clothes including socks, hats and gloves. Cheap shampoo, toothpaste and toothbrushes. Hair dye. What else??_ She had gotten stuck after adding a knife and gun to her list. Max's interrupted Chloe's trail of thoughts. “Yes, Maxi?”  
“I-I... My hair, Chlobear” Max looked down at her feet  
“Okay, Maxi” Chloe entered the bathroom and smiled at Max who was sat in the tub with the water and bubbles up to her armpits. Chloe quickly closed the gap between them and grabbed the shampoo, a small bottle of whatever cheap crappy shampoo the motel had gotten in in bulk. Chloe poured some of the shampoo into her hands, lathering it up to Max's satisfaction, the smaller girl nodded and Chloe gently worked the shampoo into Max's hair.  
“Mmmmm” Max hummed quietly to herself while Chloe massaged her head, Chloe had been washing Max's hair since she was seven. The staff at the orphanage had stopped doing things for Max the moment they thought she was old enough to do it herself and Chloe had quickly noticed how Max’s hair, as well as her general hygiene had gotten worse and worse, more and more tangled and filthy. Eventually, Chloe had decided to just help Max herself and had to teach her how to look after herself. By the time Max was ten she was able to do most of it herself but she still struggled with her hair. Chloe clenched her fists, still enraged by what had happened, how the orphanage staff didn't care enough to help her learn and how she was simply a problem to them  
“Max, we aren't going to be able to do this as much” Chloe warned her best friend. Max tilted her head. “Cos we can't stay here for long, Max. We don't have anywhere near enough money to stay in the motel for more than two days. Ideally, we would've had Rach's income but those assholes at the orphanage kinda ruined that by arresting Rach” Chloe clenched her fists in irritation

Chloe left Max to it after finishing with her hair and prepared the bed. “Maxi?”  
“Mmm” she hummed  
“Right or left?”  
Max clambered into the left side and Chloe smiled, carefully tucking her in. “Ni ni, Chlobear”  
“Ni Ni, Maxi” Chloe smiled and left her, yawning as she retreated into the shower. Tapping out a beat to a song, she began to sing the opening verse, “Hush, let's kick it in to touch...” 

Half an hour later Chloe emerged from the shower with a content smile, she always enjoyed her time in the shower. “That's better”  
Max mumbled sleepily as Chloe clambered into bed and snuggled close to Max as the big spoon. “Ni ni, Maxi”


	14. The last day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More adorable Max and Chloe shenanigans

“Morning, Max!!” The first morning of Max and Chloe being properly homeless, and stranded in LA Chloe had woken at an ungodly hour, eight AM. The first thing she did was have a nice shower, determined to take advantage of the running water while she still had it. After her shower she moved out to wake Max with an exclamation  
“Chlo!!” The brunette wriggled around in the bed and pulled the blankets higher over her head, trying to stop the stream of sunlight from burning holes in her retinas, Chloe had just pulled back the curtains, letting the early morning sunlight into the room.  
“Time to wake up, Maxi”  
“Time?” Max replied simply, she had a limited vocabulary  
“Late, Maxi. We have a lot to do today” Chloe had been looking through the drawers and closets in the room, discovering someone had left a dictionary in the room. Chloe knew that such an item, an item with limited use for most motel goers would be essential for what Chloe had planned, teaching Max whatever she could  
Max grumbled to herself as she pulled the blankets down to free her legs, she was content to just lie in the bed all day but there was no chance of that if Chloe was awake and wanted to get moving so she rolled off the bed. Her bare feet hit the slightly stiff carpet and, unsure of the sensation, Max lifted one foot then the other, “Chlo...” she whispered almost imperceptibly  
Chloe, seeing how she reacted had not hesitated to throw a pair of socks to Max who sat back down and gratefully pulled them on, albeit with the ankle bit on the top of her foot. “That better, Maxi?” Chloe asked, her voice full of warmth and love to which Max nodded her reply. “Now how about breakfast, I'm hungry, like the wolf!” She snapped the last three words, clacking her teeth together and leaping at the bed next to Max, she was rewarded by a squeal and a breathy laugh from the brunette who poked Chloe's nose bravely. “Now get ready or I'll have to eat you instead of the bacon!” Chloe warned, correcting Max's socks as she spoke

Max quickly struggled to get dressed, with a little help from Chloe when the brunette managed to pull her tee on the wrong way around. The tee in question was several sizes too big since it was Chloe's but it was all they had. Chloe didn't mind, they would be going shopping that day anyway so who the fuck cared. Once Max had gotten dressed, Chloe led Max out of the motel room and with a few muttered curse words at being forced to abandon the truck, she led the way down the street to the diner she had noticed on their way to the motel the previous evening. “This way, Maxi”  
“Mmm,” Max replied with little more than a hum. Her vocabulary was incredibly limited but even so, she rarely uttered any words when there were strangers around, or the potential for there to be strangers.  
“Yum. I'm starving” Chloe whispered to a nod of agreement from the brunette

After a leisurely paced breakfast that cost them thirty dollars on account of the sheer volume of food Chloe was able to consume, Chloe led a slightly food drunk Max away from the diner toward a number of thrift stores where they would be purchasing their supplies and clothes. Max had perked up at the chance to drool over some incredibly expensive cameras that, unless they were very lucky with their income, they wouldn't ever be able to afford and Chloe tortured herself with a cheap yet still too expensive truck she would have loved to have owned. Tearing Max away from the cameras was especially difficult, her six-megapixel camera had nothing on the latest and greatest twenty four megapixel camera that Max had been drooling over for a good twenty minutes. Her puppy dog eyes were begging Chloe to just let her hold it for five seconds, the camera that would put them over two hundred dollars out of pocket since they had spent some of their money was locked away in a cabinet. 

Max hung her head to a couple chuckles from the people who owned the store as Chloe guided her out of the shop and toward a thrift store, the owners of the store were an absolutely lovely couple who had let Chloe have a four gigabyte SD card to help fuel Max's enthusiasm for photography. Chloe shook her head at Max's dejected frown. “Hey, Maxi, if you're a good girl with the clothes shopping I'll get you some ice cream” Chloe occasionally bribed Max to do something she should do but didn't want to. Occasionally Chloe rewarded Max for lettering Chloe clean Max’s teeth if Max was in a particularly uncooperative mood.  
“Okay” Max whispered in reply, they entered the store, a tiny bell jingling to announce their presence. Chloe grimaced and glared at the unfortunate bell, already irritated by its existence  
“Right, Max, stay close and don’t leave the store,” Chloe told Max in her no-nonsense tone. Max nodded immediately and stayed by Chloe's side, fortunately the store was pretty much abandoned, only a single person sat absently behind the registers as the two young teens started browsing the store, firstly trying to find anything that was their size and then, from that pile of clothes sat in their cart, they attempted to find things that they liked the look of. 

It took a too-large number hours of traipsing around thrift stores with a fair amount of larking about from Chloe as she attempted to keep Max entertained but they eventually gathered enough clothes for their own satisfaction. Chloe had explained that they were going to attempt to get into a motel room for a night every few months for a few reasons, not least so they could have a much-needed shower and so Max could stay in the safety of a motel while Chloe went off to a laundromat to do their clothes. Chloe also planned to change area every few months to make it more difficult for them to be traced by Prescott or his men and therefore she was planning on attempting to leave a trail for Rachel to follow when she came to LA to find them. On top of the clothes, Chloe had found a backpack for Max and some shoes for both of them, Chloe still had her almost brand new backpack she had been gotten to take to Blackwell so she didn't need one for herself. Chloe eventually decided not to go for the shoes since they were pretty old, instead, she took Max to buy a brand new pair, she herself had been treated to new pair of shoes upon her acceptance to Blackwell so she didn't need any for herself. Chloe also purchased herself some spray cans and Sharpies so she could tag things and a knife for self-defense, in addition, she had considered buying a gun but if her plan came to fruition she wouldn't be anywhere near anyone who could hurt her or Max for the vast majority of the day. She had also secretly purchased a solar charger to keep Max’s camera battery charged, burning through a hundred and fifty of their dollars for that item alone and a spare battery for Max's camera, another forty dollars, those items were expensive but Chloe knew they'd be worth it just to see Max's smile and the younger girl’s enjoyment that came from being able to use her camera. Finally, Chloe had splashed out over a hundred dollars on educational workbooks for her to attempt to teach Max basic science, math and English. Those items were packed into bags and Chloe and Max had to carry them back to the motel room. 

Chloe unlocked the door to their room, hot, sweaty and smelly from the long walk back to the motel, made longer by the fact that they had gotten lost a fair few times on the return journey while carrying all their worldly possessions in their bags. No sooner as they had gotten into the room, Max dropped the bags she was carrying, she had the lighter ones filled with some of the clothes but she was still pretty pooped by the time they had gotten back. Max breathed heavily for a few moments while sat on the bed then headed into the bathroom to have a shower and while Max was in there Chloe took all their clothes to the laundromat including the ones that Max had been wearing that day. “Maxi?” Chloe had called out before she left  
“Mmm, yes, Chlobear?” Max had called back  
“I'm just going down to the laundromat. Stay in the room.” Chloe then headed out, locking the door as she left for her own peace of mind. She had her knife in her pocket where she knew it would stay

Ten minutes later and a few dollars worth of change lighter, Chloe returned to the room. Max still wasn't out of the shower so she settled on the bed to wait for Max.  
“Chlobear!!” Max eventually left the shower wrapped up in a towel and sprinted toward her best friend, wrapping her up in a warm embrace, Chloe reciprocated the embrace, pulling Max closer.  
“Why don't you get into bed, you'll get cold standing there in a towel,” Chloe suggested in a concerned tone. “I'm going to pack our backpacks and I thought I'd give you your presents before I do” Max had tilted her head at the mention of presents, she hadn't been expecting to get any since she was vaguely aware of how bad their situation was. “Firstly, I purchased some stuff for you to help you learn since those bastards at the orphanage clearly weren't interested.” She pulled out the workbooks she had purchased with a smile. One for math, one for English, three for science and the dictionary she had found earlier, as well as a few pens and a headlight Max could wear while they worked on the workbooks. Max's eyes widened and she gently pecked Chloe's cheek, the only action that she thought about to express how happy she was, happy and grateful despite not knowing what the latter meant. “I'm glad you’re happy” Chloe replied, gently touching her cheek where the innocent kiss had been left behind. “Secondly, I’ve gotten a few more things for you. She pulled out the boxed solar charger and the spare camera battery. “Here” she gave them to Max who took them oh so gently and inspected them. She recognized the battery as one that would fit her camera but her head tilted in confusion at the solar charger.  
“Chlobear?” Max was able to express so many different things with the few words she knew. From happiness to fear, from elation to confusion. Her brows were furrowed and her expressive eyes supported the tone of her voice, confusion.  
“It's a solar charger. You put it in the sun and it creates electricity. I purchased it to charge your camera batteries” Chloe explained  
Max's eyes went through a cycle of emotions, shock, disbelief and finally thankfulness and adoration. “Thank” she replied  
“You’re welcome, Maxi” Chloe began to pack away the stuff that she had purchased into their waterproofed backpacks. Toiletries like toothpaste went in plastic bags and into a side pocket along with a small bottle of shampoo and the solar charger went in the main pocket of Chloe's backpack. Chloe quickly put the SD card and the spare battery into another small bag and put them in the side pocket of Max's backpack and also bundled up a few other bits and pieces she had grabbed in an effort to try to ensure Max was entertained while they were waiting for Rachel, that little bundle went into Chloe's backpack as well. 

About an hour later Chloe returned with the warm and cozy looking fresh laundry. “Here, Maxi” Chloe bundled it all up on the bed and started sorting it into two equal piles for herself and Max. Warm tracksuit pants, comfortably fitting tees, a few long sleeved shirts, plenty of socks and underwear and an incredibly cozy looking hoodie were put into Max's pile, all neatly folded for Chloe to put in Max's backpack and the same amount of everything went into a pile to be put in Chloe's backpack as well  
“Chlobear...” Max's words expressed nothing short of the shorter brunette's love for the other girl.   
“Max, we’re gonna have to get up early tomorrow to finish preparing, you ought to get sleep”  
“Ni ni, Chlobear” Max yawned and closed her eyes with a small smile. _I love you._


	15. Making a change

Day one

“Right. Are you ready, Maxi?” Chloe turned to face the newly black haired younger girl  
“Mhm” Max had nodded timidly, it was the day that they would start out on the streets. Max wasn't nearly as nervous as Chloe but Max had no reason to be nervous, she didn't really understand how dangerous the streets could be. Chloe, on the other hand, who had spent a few nights off the grid with Rachel knew just how scary the real world could be. Both girls had witnessed a fight between a drug supplier and his dealer, the dealer who was a long time friend of the 'perfect' Rachel Amber had come out of the fight worse off and neither girl had dared show themselves even after the other man had left. They remained motionless in the car they had been sitting in, a car that had fortunately been mostly covered in other junk and therefore had hidden them until the sun had begun to rise but both girls left the junkyard with a slightly more dark view on what happened in real life.  
“Everything's gonna be okay, Max. I promise everything is gonna be okay...” Chloe pulled Max toward her. “Are you ready?” Max shook her head, no, she was not ready, not at all. Deep down, she knew that didn't matter, they had to do it else they risked getting caught and even Max understood that would be a very bad thing if they were caught by the person who claimed to be their 'father’. Together, both girls opened the door, took a deep breath and stepped outside the motel room

Chloe started walking in the direction of Los Angeles proper, toward the distant skyscrapers, turning to smile reassuringly at Max. “You know, Max. I am so very proud of you for everything. You're so brave, you put on such a brave face while deep down you must be terrified”  
“No” Max replied simply, she wrapped her hand around Chloe's. She wasn't terrified, Chloe was there and she knew Chloe would keep her safe  
“Well, I guess I'd better tell you what the plan is” Chloe spoke then patiently waited for Max's consent to continue which she gave with a quick nod. “As you know, the original plan was for Rachel to be with us but Prescott screwed that plan by accusing her of kidnapping us” Max looked at Chloe with her trademark tilted head of confusion. “Oh yeah, kidnapping is something that bad people do. Catch someone and take them away by force, against their will” Max's big round eyes had widened and she shook her head frantically. “No, I know. Rach didn't kidnap us, we knew we had to leave before what happened to Nate happened to us” Max nodded. “Well, that put a huge fuck in our plans, we were going to have over five grand to play with but we still couldn't stay in motels or homeless shelters, which we can't stay in anyway despite changing our appearances. That'll be the first place Prescott looks if Rach squeals, and I can’t say I'd blame her if she did tell him where we might have gone since it would get her out of trouble and allow her to come find us quicker”  
_Wowsers, she is so co... Con... Fuck it_ Max furrowed her brows at being unable to even _think_ what she wanted without difficulty  
“I have a plan, the money we have left will last us awhile with my current plan. We can spend money on food every day and find a cheaper motel every few months to redo our hair” she pushed a couple of pitch black strands of hair out of Max's face. “And so I can scout out a new place to hide”  
Max nodded, “okay, Chlo.” She knew Chloe would look after her and if she was honest, the whole situation felt like yet another one of their pirate adventures. Despite being in a new city, Max felt totally at ease

*****

Day seven

“Yes, Mr. Chase, I understand.” Principal Wells looked distinctly uncomfortable, he was stood looking out the window with an intense frown set firmly on his face. “Uh huh, yes, I understand. I'm sure that can be arranged.”  
Victoria took her cell back off of the dark-skinned man who was sweating profusely under the stress of what had just transpired. “Am I to understand you and my father have reached an agreement?” She asked sweetly while Principal Wells broke out a glass and a bottle of whiskey  
“Yes, Ms. Chase”  
“I have one final question, how on god’s green earth were Prescott and Amber still students at this prestigious school of the arts?”  
“Well... You see, Ms. Prescott... Is the brightest student we've ever had, a GPA higher even than Ms. Amber’s. She had a near as makes no difference weighted GPA of five and it was beneficial to both the academy and her to keep her as a student despite her... Troublemaking”  
“Oh my god you were bribed weren’t you?” The realization hit Victoria like lightning, she was stunned she hadn’t put two and two together faster  
“Well, I” Wells spluttered  
“How much did old man Prescott promise you?” Victoria asked, knowing every iota of information may prove to be invaluable with what she had planned. “To fund the whole place for the duration of Prescott’s tenure here?”  
“Actually it was a decade” Wells replied with a blush. “A decade after Ms. Prescott graduated”  
“Oh wow...” _Prescott has a shitton of cash... Even my parents don't have that much, not at hand anyway_  
“Yeah. I trust you'll take care of everything else?” Wells asked, still bemused  
“Of course” _I've only worked for almost a week to get this plan right, why would I fuck it up now?_  
“Very well, I do have my own question though, I thought you and Ms. Amber hated each others guts?”  
“I was wrong” with those final three words Victoria turned and left the principal’s office, meeting up with her minions outside his office.

“Vic, everything is ready” Taylor nodded at the pixie blonde  
“They all agreed?” Victoria replied, doubly making sure  
“Uh huh...” Courtney provided an answer with no small amount of disbelief  
“Then let's get going, I have to get something set up”  
“I have one question”  
_I'm so fucking fed up of those three words_. Victoria suppressed her irritation to reply calmly. “What is it, Tay?”  
“Why DnD?”  
“Cos it's cool?”  
“Oh” Taylor had a small smile as she replied, she knew Victoria was a secret nerd and it was nice to see her indulging

*****

Day fourteen

Rachel sat on her bed. She looked dejectedly over at the calendar on her wall, on which she had started crossing off the days before endlessly lying on the bed with the covers over her. She hadn’t showered for fourteen days, the length of time she had spent a prisoner in her own home. The blonde thespian didn't even feel like going outside into the yard since that would involve passing her mother and father who were always very vocal with the disappointment they felt towards their only daughter so she just sat on her bed or at her desk. She had very little to entertain herself with since her cell phone and laptop had both been confiscated by the police upon her arrest and therefore she found the isolation grating on her calm most days resulting in her spending hours at a time pacing backward and forward, up and down the length of her gilded cage. She looked around her room, the TV was the one thing that hadn’t been touched but she had realized she was likely to be in that room for an extended period of time so she was trying to save the movies and TV shows she had, recording what she could of the shows she had been watching but since lost interest in. _I'm supposed to be in LA or SF or even Seattle with my two best friends, not stuck here in my room with this damn ankle thing on. I'm not a fucking criminal for trying to save my friends' lives!!_ Rachel had been so preoccupied with her thoughts that she almost hadn't caught the knock upon the front door. _Oh great. Rose has ordered yet more shitty love movies to watch_

Knock knock. The sudden and almost deafening knocks on Rachel's door were too close for comfort, wincing and grumbling, Rachel stood in her comfortable indoor clothes that she had been wearing for almost two weeks non stop and moved over to the door. “Who is it?” She called with a croaky voice. The thespian had spent a lot of the day before screaming, her all-important composure and masks having abandoned her. She was so so scared about hearing that Chloe and Max had been found that she never put the TV on a channel that might inadvertently show the news  
“Uh” a vaguely familiar voice replied quietly through the door  
_Is that... It can't be_  
“It's Victoria. Victoria Chase from Blackwell?”  
Intrigued, Rachel unlocked the door and opened it. Sure enough, the pixie blonde who hadn’t said more than twenty words to her that semester and none of which were pleasant was stood outside her door. “Uh... Victoria?”  
The pixie blonde's eyes traveled down Rachel, giving her a once over, her eyes landing on the ankle monitor secured to her left ankle. To Rachel's complete shock, Victoria was not looking at her with disdain or a usual Victoria-esque expression, instead, it was one of sympathy. “Look, Rachel. I'm sorry for what's happened”  
“Who are you and what did you do with Victoria Chase?” Rachel had noticed her father skulking around nearby. _Fucker_  
Seemingly noticing that herself, Victoria gulped and lifted a binder out of her bag. “Look, I reminded Principal Wells that you were innocent until proven guilty and I asked my parents to hold off their donations to Blackwell because a star student was kicked out and I didn't agree with it. Long story short, I can't do anything about you being under house arrest but I did get you the opportunity to do your classwork here. I threatened to stand in class with a video recorder before Wells finally relented. In that binder, you'll find the worksheets and an SD card with the lectures me and a few other recorded for you.”  
“But... I can't submit them, I don't have a laptop and my parents changed the WiFi password, I can't even watch Netflix”  
“You'll have to ask for the laptop back but... You won't need the internet” Victoria moved over to the shelf where Rachel kept several keepsakes including a star projector that Chloe had modified. Flicking it on, she smiled gently. “It’s a nice room... Keep this on, I think it's nice” there was a glint to Victoria's eyes but before Rachel could ask about it Victoria shook her head. “And have a fucking shower, girl. Seriously, _eww_ ”  
_That's more like the Victoria Chase I know and love_ Rachel thought dryly and with that Victoria waved goodbye, submitted to the customary pat-down and retreated outside. Deciding to heed Victoria's advice, Rachel opened her window, took the bed linen off her bed, stripped and walked over to the bathroom where she could have a nice shower then a long soak. She opened the window in the bathroom and as a result, could vaguely hear Victoria speaking to Rose through the opened bathroom window but couldn't make out what they were saying.

Deciding to play a game she had last played with Chloe, she smirked and allowed her mind to wander while she stood in the shower, all the grime from the last two weeks dissolving off her body.  
_No_ , Rachel imagined her mother saying, _I don't know why Rachel did what she did, kidnapping two girls_  
Victoria replied back. _No, I'm sure she didn't kidnap them. I mean Rachel was a bit of a bitch at school but I don't think she ever wanted to kidnap anyone, not even Chloe_  
_Then why the fuck did she do what she did?!_ Rose snapped back. “Oops, 'mom’ doesn't swear...”  
_I don't know, Mrs. Amber_  
_See, child, don't pretend to know..._ The voices faded off some and Rachel imagined Victoria raising a certain finger to Rose as she stormed away, even though that was nigh on impossible.

Eventually, Rachel moved over to the tub and sat in it for a long soak. She had cleaned off all the grime in the shower so she was just having a bath to relax. She had been incredibly stressed after all, after an hour long soak in the tub Rachel got out, dried and returned to her room where she found a laptop waiting for her with a small note, not hers as it has been confiscated but another one. ‘ _Your friend worked hard to get you a second chance. Don't waste it_ ' She sighed in irritation at her father's attitude but eventually smiled then she turned, hearing a faint buzzing from nearby, at first she has thought it was one of those things used to trim hedges but it seemed to be coming from somewhere above the level of her window. Her jaw dropped when she saw what it was. _What the fuck?!_

*****

Victoria had returned to Blackwell with a spring in her step. “Assemble the troops, my faithful friends” she exclaimed in Taylor and Courtney's direction.  
“Scott accepted our gift with good faith” Courtney replied. “With that, I think your plan is go”  
Victoria smiled a genuine smile, not a showy false smile she had gotten so used to displaying for the whole world to see but a gentle one. “To Brooke Scott’s room we go!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So for anyone who's confused:  
> Part one (Chloe and Max) took place on the second day of them being homeless. Part two (Vic and Wells) took place on the seventh day of them being homeless. And parts three and four took place on the fourteenth day of them being homeless. 
> 
> I wanted to include all three parts since they're all pretty important but also wanted to move the story along a bit.  
> Would it be helpful if I made sure I made it clear what day it is of Chloe and Max's homelessness every time I do a jump?


	16. The plan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1000 hits already? Enjoy a celebratory chapter

Day fourteen

“Hmph. Victoria. I don't think you've ever knocked on my door before, like ever.” Brooke Scott looked a bit perturbed to have an unexpected visit from the Queen Bee of Blackwell, even more so than the unexpected box of bits and pieces that had been dropped outside her door, her wish list of parts for her beloved drone. “We don't know each other like at _all_.”  
“Brooke, can we just talk for a moment, _please_?” Brooke had to stop and stare, Victoria was wringing her hands nervously, seemingly incredibly uncomfortable with the situation she found herself in. Intrigued, Brooke merely waved her hand, signaling the Queen Bee to continue. “Uh... Can we do this in private, please?”  
“Come on in then” To Brooke's surprise, one of Victoria's lackeys, Courtney remained outside the door at a nod from Victoria.  
“She’s standing guard” Taylor provided to the dark-haired girl. “I like your highlights, by the way”  
“Uh... Thanks?” she looked between them. “What’s all this about, Victoria?” she asked somewhat coldly. The entire school had heard about Victoria’s role in Rachel being arrested. Strangely enough, not a single girl in that dorm believed the official story, that Rachel was a kidnapper.  
“The truth is I need your help”  
“ _My_ help, why?” Brooke was surprised and rather reluctant to help

Victoria handed over a brand new box to Brooke. “I need you to fly this”  
“Uh...”  
“Please, Brooke. It's important and it'll help me fix a dreadful mistake I made” Victoria wasn’t quite begging but it was close  
“Fine... What's in it for me?” Brooke asked  
“A new drone...”  
“Really? You purchased this for me?”  
“No” Victoria was shaking her head, “I purchased this one for what I need your help with. The one I’ve gotten for you is in my room... But I need you to help before I give it to you.”  
“What will we be doing?” Against her better judgment, the robotics nerd was actually considering helping Victoria  
“I need you to swear that this stays between us, okay? All I can tell you is that three lives are on the line, perhaps more if we don't get this right”  
“Have you told the police?”  
“No, we can't. We don't have enough evidence to go to them. But this will help us gain the evidence we need”  
“What are we doing?”  
“Delivering a package, nothing more, nothing less.”

Victoria placed the box on Brooke's bed. “I need you to put these gloves on, you’re not allergic to latex are you?”  
“No... Victoria tell me what the hell is going on? I won't help unless you do”  
“Fine!!” Victoria snapped, Brooke drew back slightly, flinching at the blonde’s raised voice. “You remember those two girls in the news, Max and Chloe? I don't believe for a single second that Rachel kidnapped them”  
“For the first time in the history of the universe, I agree with you”  
“Good. I believe their lives were in danger in some way, Brooke and I need this to be able to talk to the one person who knows what really happened”  
_Rachel?_ “I'm in”  
“Very good, you made the right decision Brooke.” Brooke put the gloves on, realizing it was to keep her fingerprints off of the controls she would be using to fly the drone  
_Victoria has taken all the precautions she can to keep me out of it if it goes wrong_.  
“Thank you, Brooke” Victoria smiled genuinely at the other girl who was taken aback by how beautiful that smile was. Taylor had moved outside the room to join Courtney

“Let's get this over and done with...” Brooke opened the box, noticing that the drone was already prepared with the unmarked box that was the package that Victoria was attempting to deliver. She took out the controls and fired up the drone. Opening the window, Brooke noticed Courtney was outside in the corner of the courtyard. Holding up one fist she flipped it up into a thumbs up  
“That’s the go sign” Victoria provided, “there’s nobody out there, you can fly” and the drone flew out through the window. From where she was, Courtney had a good view of all the dorm rooms that overlooked the courtyard and therefore could see the drone as it flew out of the window as well as the path toward the dorms and the principal's house. Once the drone had cleared the dorm roof and flown off in the direction Victoria had instructed according to her research the night before, Courtney returned indoors and entered Brooke's room. “We’re in the clear” Victoria smiled.

Fifteen minutes later and the drone hovered behind a tree near the Amber household. “Ready for this?” Victoria whispered. It had taken a little while for the drone to reach the other side of town, fortunately the other side of town was still in range else the plan would've been over before it even started. Brooke merely nodded, they had timed everything as best they could so the drone flew toward the house while the officer watching the house was using the bathroom in the Ambers' house. “You’re looking for a room illuminated by a star projector” Victoria informed the black-haired girl. Seeing it, Brooke flew the drone down and, for the first time in eighteen days, caught sight of Rachel Amber. Rachel looked as if she had just gotten out of the tub, her hair was damp and she was wearing a robe. She looked a lot better than she had a few hours ago  
“Holy shit” came Rachel’s voice through the microphone on the drone, her jaw hanging open in shock.  
“Drop the package on her desk then get the drone out of there!” Courtney ordered. Brooke did so, lowering the package on to the desk so Rachel could untie it then flew the drone back out the window as Victoria spoke again  
“You have about twenty seconds to clear the house”  
_No pressure then..._ The skilled drone pilot flew the drone back past the tree and away from Rachel's house.  
“Any second now...” Victoria spoke with confidence. A phone beeped from within Victoria's pocket. “YES!!” the pixie blonde exclaimed quietly, pulling the clearly prepaid phone out of her pocket to answer the text

 **[SMS: R.A., 18:09]** 'Hello? Who the fuck is this? V.C.?'  
**[SMS: 18:09]** 'Hey, R.A., it's V.C. here  
**[SMS: R.A., 18:10]** 'No, no way... It can't be'  
**[SMS: 18:10]** 'Don't use my name!'  
**[SMS: 18:10]** 'Use the initials! It's unlikely that anyone will work it out but just in case’  
**[SMS: 18:11]** ‘Call the other contact on this phone... Now!'

There was a faint ringing from one of the other rooms in the dorm just as the drone flew back in through the window. “Thank you, Brooke” Victoria picked the drone up, took the remote and smiled genuinely. “Come on you two” Victoria left the room and went down the hall, Taylor went to Victoria's room and Courtney closed the door on her way out then went back to her room. Brooke was left feeling slightly confused when someone knocked on her door again.  
“As promised” Taylor was stood outside her door holding a brand new and rather expensive looking drone. She placed the box down inside Brooke's room, smiled and returned to her room

*****

“Hello?” Rachel’s voice was quiet and timid  
“Call me S.G” the voice replied, it was a voice that Rachel was immediately able to recognize  
“Hey, S.G., what's going on?”  
“We have a plan to help M and C... We just need a few details. R.A., please, we need your help”  
“Uh... How do I know I can trust you, or V.C?”  
“Because it's me, and V.C. isn't with me currently, I need you to tell me the places you and the girls were planning to go to... We have a plan to find them before the bastard does, V.C. will only know one of those locations if there's more than one”  
“Okay, I will trust you, S.G. but if you betray me I _will_ kill you” the blonde thespian growled  
“That’s fair enough”  
“We discussed three cities before I was arrested... San Francisco, Seattle and Los Angeles.”  
“Excellent!” Steph exclaimed, excited to actually make a difference  
“Also, N.P is in Portland.”  
“Alright. I promise we won’t let you down, R.A.” A door on Steph's end opened and closed. “I'll see you soon” The call was terminated and Rachel lifted her hand to her cheek to find her cheeks wet. She was crying with relief. Hiding the phone in the bottom of her underwear drawer, Rachel returned to her bed and dabbed her eyes dry

*****

“Do we have it?” Victoria was looking at an auburn-haired girl who was staring out of the window at the native American Tobonga pole  
“We have it. Three cities and a fourth for Dana and Juliet to go to”  
Victoria sighed with relief, “that's awesome news, Steph! As you know, tomorrow is the last day before Christmas break, during which we have two weeks to find Max and Chloe, as well as Nathan”  
“So tonight I assume we'll be sorting out who goes where?”  
“Yeah, and you'll be controlling everything from your place, right?”  
“Uh huh”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone who's read this fic and my other ones!! Thanks everyone who left a comment or kudos on my fics!


	17. Day fourteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually wrote this when this fic hit 1000 views but then forgot about it...
> 
> So anyway, a tad late. Enjoy

Day fourteen

“Maxi, time to wake up.” Max woke up to Chloe's gentle shaking as usual, fourteen days into their homelessness Max still wasn't able to wake herself up in the morning and they couldn't risk having any kind of alarm. The younger girl slept the sleep of the dead and the older girl's hand was on Max's shoulder to ensure that the younger brunette didn't slam her head into the top of the air duct they were hiding in, rather ironic as it was often Chloe, not Max who hit her head upon waking up. They had been sleeping in that building’s infrastructure of air ducts since their second day of actually being homeless, the first night Chloe had pulled Max along to a local park only to discover that a park isn't really an ideal place to sleep as it was not only pretty cold but they were vulnerable to having people steal their belongings as they had lost about fifty dollars to some thief who had taken Chloe's wallet though fortunately the rest of their money was still hidden. With that, Chloe and Max set off to find a better place to hunker down at night. Immediately, Chloe's eyes had been drawn to the skyscrapers around them and they spent the day on their feet searching for an easily accessible hiding place. Eventually, Chloe had found a gap in building security that would allow them to reach the air duct and they scrambled across to the duct and quickly gained access, fortunately, the cover wasn't secured properly so Chloe was just able to move it out of the way and usher Max inside.

Chloe had spent about twenty dollars on enough food that they hoped would be enough to fill them for awhile before they moved into the building since Chloe had wanted to ascend to a higher level of the building but Max was incredibly tired so they both settled down on the second floor that first night, Chloe insisting that they climb at least one level from the first  
“Chlo” Max whispered, opening bleary eyes to the fourteenth day of bleak prospects and hunger. She and Chloe had quickly gotten used to their less than perfect smell and had been snuggled together in the dark and rather cozy air duct. They had made their way up the building the morning after they broke in and had hidden on one of the higher floors, only leaving the relative security to grab food and go to the bathroom in the foliage surrounding their entrance  
“Today we’re going to work on your math skills” the former blunette had already set up the workbooks and handed Max the head torch she had purchased for that purpose. It was slow progress but Chloe knew they had plenty of time  
“Okay, Chlobear” Max smiled happily at Chloe, undeterred by how bleak their prospects actually were

“So... Three times three is...” Chloe looked at Max with what could only be described as a mother's love. Chloe was Max's maternal figure and she had been for quite a while. Chloe and Max didn't even get teased for it, not after she had flattened one of the older, seventeen-year-old boys against a wall and punched him a few times for how they were 'like dikes' and how Chloe could do better 'than a retard like Max'. Chloe was ten and the guy was so stunned by her actions that he didn't even try to retaliate. Chloe was furious and after that nobody openly mocked Max anymore instead hiding their whispers and derisive comments regardless of Max not actually understanding why Chloe had gotten so upset  
Max used her fingers, counting out the numbers. “Three” _four, five,_ “six” _seven, eight,_ “Nine!!”  
“Yes!! That's right!!” Chloe's genuine smile was filled with love and admiration  
Max's small smile grew at Chloe's exclamation, the older girl was always so enthusiastic about teaching Max and it was just another one of those things that Max adored about the other girl, she wasn't annoyed by Max at all and even found enjoyment in helping the younger girl learn. “Love you Chlobear!!”  
“Love you too, Maxi” _I don't understand how anyone could hate my Maxi._ “Now, come on Maxi, if you can get to five times three, we can move on to the four times table”  
“Yes!!”  
“Carry on then...” Chloe had excitement glinting in her eyes  
“Six... W-we got to six” _seven, eight,_ “nine” _ten, eleven,_ “twelve” _thirteen, fourteen_ , “fifteen!!”  
“Well done, Maxi!!”  
“Chlo!!” Max nuzzled Chloe, basking in the pride Chloe felt for her  
“Now, Maxi. The four times table is just like the three times table only it involves counting up in fours. Do you want to try alone or with me for the first time?”  
Max didn't reply, she simply pointed at Chloe who chuckled and nodded. “As you wish, my Maxi.” Chloe leaned up against the edge of the duct, taking advantage of an up shaft to be able to sit upright, “together then.”  
“One, two, three, _four_...”

*****

“So what are we all doing here, playing some tabletop game?” The brown-haired Juliet asked, sweeping some of her hair out of her face as she spoke while looking at all of Steph’s game master stuff, set out in such an orderly fashion though the notes she had hidden behind the screen couldn't be further from notes on a make-believe game, rather more oddly the beanie-wearing auburn-haired girl was nowhere to be found  
“Looks like it Juli” another brunette replied  
“Dana,” Juliet acknowledged the cheerleader before raising an eyebrow, “isn't that Drew?” Juliet continued her reply, pointing at a slim dark-skinned man who had joined them in the lounge. Stood by his side was a younger dark-skinned boy  
“Yeah... Hey, Drew! I thought you'd moved to a different college with a better football team?”  
“Yeah, Dana but the semester is over and Steph asked us to come back, this is my brother, Mikey” he introduced his brother, unsure if they had ever met  
“Why?”  
“Some kind of emergency” Drew shrugged  
_That... Doesn't make sense_ Dana and Juliet shared a glance, a glance filled with trepidation

“Hey, guys and girls” Steph entered the lounge and smiled, waving at them. Following behind her were what seemed to be half the student community, or at least half of those that lived in the dorms. Samantha Myers, Trevor, Justin Williams, Stella Hill, Alyssa Anderson and Warren Graham followed in Steph's wake along with Taylor and Courtney  
“W-what the h-hell is going on?” Samantha asked the other girls, wringing her hands anxiously.  
“No idea”  
“Thank you for joining us at such short notice” Victoria had finally entered the lounge with her own binder of notes  
“V-Victoria?” Justin mumbled, “what's _she_ doing here?!” not many members of the Blackwell community really liked Victoria, they showed her respect solely because they feared her  
“She’s here with me” Steph declared, preemptively ending any discussion or argument before it began

“Now, everyone. As you know Chloe and Rachel ran away from Blackwell, right?” Steph's question was answered by a chorus of nods from the assembled group. “Contrary to what Sean Prescott would want you to believe, Chloe and another girl, her 'sister' Max who isn't actually her sister were not kidnapped by Rachel Amber. They were fleeing Prescott and his abusive orphanage along with a boy called Nathan” There were a few murmurs at that revelation but nobody spoke for a good few minutes  
“So? How does this involve us?” Trevor asked, his eyes red from smoking. Justin rolled his eyes at his friend’s comments but Steph spoke before he could tell his friend off for his remark. Trevor was disinterested by the mention of Prescott’s biological son, he had been interested in helping Chloe who he thought was pretty cool  
“We have to find them, all three of them, before _they_ do” Steph stated plainly, names were unnecessary. “Chloe Price, Nathan Prescott and Max. Victoria and I have reason to believe that Chloe's last name is Price so we gotta look for people named Price, presumably her parents will have died. Brooke, do you think you can handle that?”  
“Yeah, sure. I'll get my shiny new drone and start searching the cemetery” Brooke flashed Victoria a big smile, thanking her silently for the new drone  
“Good. As far as I'm aware only Victoria has volunteered to lead one team. Taylor and Courtney will be going with you, right, Victoria?”  
“Uh huh” the pixie blonde nodded eagerly

“I'll take another team” The dark-skinned football player piped up, he was worried about Chloe. Drew knew her briefly before he and his brother had an opportunity to move and they had played one campaign of the tabletop game with the blunette  
“Drew, thank you” Victoria smiled, “I realize I was a bitch before, I'm making a change though”  
“I'll take Mikey and you, Steph” Drew followed Victoria's lead, selecting his two companions to form a trio like the pixie blonde  
“Steph’s actually gonna stay here, coordinate the whole thing from her house. Would you mind taking Samantha?” Victoria corrected, saving the nerd from having to choose between her friends or her role as the only person Rachel trusted enough to tell everything to  
“M-me?” the aforementioned girl stuttered, surprised that she had been trusted enough to help find the missing kids  
“Yeah, I know you crushed on Nathan” Steph whispered soothingly, “just think about it okay?”  
“Okay” Samantha wasn’t ready to come out of her shell but she didn't want anything to happen to Nathan

“Dana, you think you can lead the last team?”  
“Sure, Victoria. I'll take Trevor and Justin, better drive myself too” Dana added with a chuckle, Trevor and Justin were well known as potheads after all  
Steph laughed slightly, “yeah” she didn't want them getting into trouble, especially with the police  
“Hey, what about the rest of us?” Juliet called from the back  
“Juliet, would you mind going with Stella and Alyssa to go find Nathan?” Steph replied to a nod, “I'm hoping you'll find him and be able to interview him”  
“And what about me?” Warren grumbled  
“Can I leave you in charge of the computer crap? I'll probably be too busy with this lot” Steph indicated the room at large. “Set up a Facebook group, do research that sorta stuff”  
“Uh yeah, sure. I'm guessing I can do it from home?”  
“Sure. I'll make sure I print out the notes we have made to help you search for them and well, as you know tomorrow is the last day of the semester, I'll see y'all tomorrow. I don't think I need to say _don't tell anyone_ , do I?” Victoria's voice was stern, the glare warning all present that she would make their lives living hell if they told anyone  
“No, Victoria” the voices chorused  
“Victoria, Dana, Drew, Warren and Juliet, I'll see you in my room as soon as classes finish, I'll make sure you know where you're going”  
“Okay, Steph. We’ll see you tomorrow” Victoria pointed at the door, dismissing everyone with the simple gesture  
“Get a good night's sleep, all of you. A lot of you have long drives ahead of you tomorrow”

*****

“Chlobear?” Max had curled into Chloe atop the building, they liked to spend awhile watching the sun go down which also allowed Max the opportunity to photograph the golden hour and the surrounding area. Be it a lone seagull or a broken window, Chloe was always amazed by Max's ability to capture beautiful in the most mundane things  
“Yes, Maxi?” Chloe wrapped her arms around Max and held her comfortingly  
“Where’s Rach?” Max's innocent, vulnerable voice always made Chloe question what she had done regardless of knowing it was their _only_ option  
“Max, I don't think Rachel will be coming anytime soon” Chloe mumbled regretfully  
“Awww” Max pouted, she missed the energetic thespian. Yes she was happy to be with Chloe all the time but she still missed Rachel ever since she had gotten arrested  
“Max, sleepy time now, ni ni” Chloe smiled at the black haired freckled girl, putting a blanket over her vulnerable petite form  
“Ni ni, Chlobear” Max nuzzled into Chloe with a smile, thinking how lucky she was


	18. Heading out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The rescue parties finally leave Arcadia

Day fifteen

Victoria had woken up exceedingly early at five in the morning and had had a long and scalding hot shower to de-stress herself after her stressful few weeks, a stress that would only increase as time went by as she and her posse were set to head out that afternoon to one of the three possible cities where Rachel figured Max and Chloe would have traveled to and hidden in. Victoria suspected the city would not be a quiet nor small one, the way Steph had reacted when Rachel read out the three possible cities to her was more than disheartening. Her shoulders slumped and her head bowed and even days later, Victoria wasn't able to shake the fear that they wouldn't ever be able to find their missing friends in the sprawling metropolis that Rachel was sure to favor over the smaller towns and cities. Since she and her team, along with all the other teams would be driving a fair amount of distance, they had all been in bed before eight in the evening and would hopefully be able to catch some shut-eye during the last classes of the semester.

“Uh, can I ask what you're doing?” Victoria had walked out of town during her lunch period as she had a free period after lunch on Fridays to head out to the orphanage, hoping to perhaps meet some of the kids that were in the orphanage and try to question them about life in the orphanage. She wanted to figure out if there were any viable way to get the place shut down permanently and to gauge how urgent it was for them to do that. Instead of finding some of the kids that lived in the orphanage, kids that had been even more noticeably absent since Max and Chloe ran away, Victoria had stumbled across something interesting instead, several men were loading a small vehicle parked outside the front of the orphanage with a number of sealed boxes of stuff. The orphanage had been built on the grounds of the Prescott estate so Victoria had to be careful not to be seen trespassing by the management. _What the hell?_  
“Sure” one of the men replied, a friendly smile on his face  
“Well...?”  
“We've been asked to remove the belongings of two of the orphans. Sadly two girls have passed away”  
“Oh my god, I'm so sorry to hear that!” Victoria covered her mouth in horror. “Do you know their names?” _Fuck... Please no..._ Victoria began to feel despair nipping at her heels  
“Not really, there were names on some of the girls’ belongings. No clothes, I think they were donated to other children in the orphanage but everything else has been cleared and will be donated to a thrift store” the man indicated several boxes, “or trashed” he indicated other boxes marked with the word 'garbage'.

Victoria frowned. She rummaged through some of the stuff in one of the boxes, finding a vintage Polaroid camera which had a name on it in permanent ink and was in very good condition for a camera that old, slightly faded from use but still visible. 'Max’. Victoria gasped and almost dropped the camera. “Oh my god...” she breathed the three words, horrified, fumbling with the camera to save it from smashing into the blacktop. _The orphaned children have been told that Max and Chloe are dead?! Holy shit that's some manipulative bullshit. Even I wouldn't have ever pulled that kinda shit!! That's fucking sick!_ Victoria fought to reign her hatred and fury under control as the man spoke again  
“Did you know them?” The man asked cautiously, his voice as gentle as it had been if not more so  
“Uh... Yes actually. I'll pay you triple whatever Prescott is paying you if you'll take their stuff to my friend’s house instead... Quadruple if you keep it quiet from Prescott and everyone else”  
“Uh...?” the man scratched his head uneasily  
“I know those girls’ friends, and I also know those girls would prefer their belongings went to their friends instead of to random thrift stores” Victoria whispered quietly, reluctant to let all of Max and Chloe's belongings go to a thrift store when she _had_ to believe that Max and Chloe were still out there, somewhere.  
“Fine” the man relented and nodded with a small smile, “okay. Give me that address and I'll take this stuff there.” Victoria nodded, wrote Steph's address down, texted her and smiled at the man. “Prescott is paying me five hundred dollars...”  
“Done. Two thousand dollars”

Fifteen minutes later Steph met Victoria and the men at her house. “Hey” Steph and Victoria had agreed not to use their names while talking to the men  
“Hey. These guys were clearing Max and Chloe's stuff out of the orphanage and I thought you'd appreciate getting their stuff after the tragedy.” Steph tilted her head slightly, giving the other young woman an appraising gaze. _Please play along, please Gingrich, play along._  
Steph eventually nodded, “I'm so grateful that you managed to save this shit!! Poor Max, poor Chloe, they went before their time...” Steph wiped her eyes, there were real tears in her eyes. The two men smiled sadly, unloaded their vehicle and departed with solemn smiles, leaving the two young women alone  
“Victoria?”  
“They were just trashing the girls’ belongings!! It was almost as if Max and Chloe never existed, Steph!” Steph looked appalled  
“What the fuck?!” The auburn haired girl radiated fury at the revelation. “Is Sean Prescott really that bad?”  
“He’s worse. Steph...” Victoria began nervously, unsure as to how Steph would react to what she was about to tell her. “He told the other kids, the other orphans that Max and Chloe were dead!!”

SMASH!! Victoria recoiled at the sudden loud noise, Steph had chucked the bowl of chips she had been preparing across the room in a sudden uncontrollable outburst. “FUCK THAT ASSHOLE!!!” Steph screamed at the far wall, the one that had been slightly dented by her sudden fit of rage and the shattered bowl. Victoria had never seen Steph get angry before and she had to admit she found it more than slightly frightening to see a nerd like Steph lose all her composure as she had.  
“Steph... P-please” Victoria squeaked, disliking how squeaky her voice had become, regretting opening her mouth. “S-shit” she closed her eyes and squeezed her mouth into a thin line while turning her head away from the other girl, her hands shaking slightly  
“Shit, Victoria, I'm sorry!!” Steph calmed quickly and moved over to the other girl once she saw the state the pixie blonde was in.  
“Steph!” Victoria squeaked, privately kinda glad she hadn't ever picked on Steph too much.  
“Shit, how can I help?”  
“Water” she croaked. She wanted two things, the water and to get Steph out of the room for a moment. Steph nodded immediately and left the pixie blonde on the couch while she strolled out to the kitchen to get her a glass of water. Victoria meanwhile was fumbling with something in her bag, something she hated. _Fuck! Where are they?!!_

A few moments passed before Steph returned from the kitchen, catching sight of a small bottle that Victoria was hastily trying to shove back into her bag. “Here's your water” she placed it down on the small table so Victoria could drink from it which she promptly did.  
“Where's the stuff?” Victoria enquired  
Having immediately understood what Victoria had meant, Steph led her through to the dining room which was covered with paperwork. Newspapers, printed out articles from various webpages, various notepads and a number of maps covered the table, most of the paperwork had Steph’s neat handwriting in the margins. “Sorry for the mess, Victoria” Steph smirked at Victoria’s incredulous yet mildly amused expression  
“Steph, how the fuck do you find anything in this mess?” She asked while putting one of the several boxes down in the corner of the room. Steph would have to find a more permanent home for it and the other boxes later but they both wordlessly decided that the corner of the dining room would do temporarily  
“You’d be surprised. This pile is my research into Chloe's presumably dead parents.” Steph indicated a pile of website printouts once she had put the box she had been carrying. “I searched for anything here in Arcadia relating to the last name ‘Price’.” Steph moved forward a couple steps before speaking again. “This is my non-existent research into Max's family” she placed her hand on a sheet of paper with 'Max’ written on it, “seeing as we don't even know her last name yet”  
Victoria hummed an affirmative then indicated the maps, going toward them. “What are these?”  
Steph quickly grabbed them, pulling them away before Victoria could see what the maps were of. “Sorry, Victoria. You can't see that, not yet anyway.”  
Victoria, smiled and nodded through her surprise.

“I'm so upset that Prescott is treating the girls as dead” Victoria admitted  
“Yea,” Steph began, “though let's face facts. It serves our purpose well” Victoria puffed up slightly and her face had started to go red in anger. “Victoria, think about it... If Prescott knew Max and Chloe were alive, he’d be hunting them both down”  
“Maybe you're right” Victoria nodded, carrying the fourth and final box in while Steph carried the third box  
“None of Nate's stuff is here...” Steph commented  
“I don't know what Prescott did with Nathan's stuff” the pixie blonde replied, stunned at how little Max and Chloe had owned

*****

“That’s it for today, kids!!” Mark Jefferson stood at the front of his class, pointedly ignoring Victoria who was recording the class for Rachel, the latter of whom Jefferson suddenly hated, a weird turn of events for the whole class, not just for those who didn't know what was actually going on. “And don't forget to submit your photographs for this year's competition, 'New Beginnings’!! I'm looking at _you_ Victoria, you have a _gift_ after all.” Victoria had returned to school from Steph's house just in time for the beginning of afternoon classes, she had double photography while Steph had the afternoon free  
Victoria had just about managed to avoid scoffing or swearing at the foul man stood before her class, knowing from Rachel that Jefferson worked at the orphanage put her on edge and encouraged her to re-examine everything that the wannabe hipster had ever said to her, the class and all the stuff she had overheard him say to the other students. _Fuck off. I don't want your bullshit praise you fucking pretentious creep!!_  
“Victoria, may I have a word?” Jefferson moved over to speak to Victoria  
“Sure...” _you fucking creep_. “Mr. Jefferson” Victoria forced a smile at her former idol  
“You've been distant the past few weeks, Victoria” the sick twisted man had a look of hurt on his face, a look that Victoria had immediately dismissed as being false  
_Oh shit_ Victoria gulped slightly, hoping it was imperceptible  
“Ever since Chloe Di... Went missing”  
_You weren’t about to say Chloe's dead, were you?!_ the pixie blonde's mind was racing. “Yeah well, I've been worried” Victoria replied, it was true, she had been worried about both Chloe and Max, slowly losing her mind  
“I thought you two didn't get along” Victoria knew Jefferson meant Chloe since he has no idea that Victoria knew about Max  
“I know that was a common misconception” Victoria corrected him forcefully. “We were friends, Mr. Jefferson. Honestly, shouldn't you be off looking for her instead of teaching a high school class?” Victoria couldn't keep the trademark Queen Bitch ice out of her tone  
“We all have our obligations, Ms. Chase”  
_Ms. Chase, formal. I can work with formal_. “And shouldn't yours be to the missing girl who ended up getting _kidnapped_?”  
“I also have a responsibility to teach you lot photography”  
_Fuck your responsibility_. “I understand”  
“Okay, you're free to go. Don't forget your camera” he indicated the device that had been recording the class, “or the competition”  
“Thank you” _Jeffershit_

*****

Ten minutes after she had escaped the clutches of the vile teacher, Victoria arrived at the TV lounge they had used the day before for their meeting, everyone else save Steph was already there. “Well, shit. There goes my reputation for being punctual!” she spat in annoyance though most of them stood over to one side with only a few people moving into the middle of the room awaiting Steph's arrival  
“Victoria?” Dana, Juliet and Drew moved over to check on her. The tall cheerleader spoke again, “Victoria, what's wrong?”  
“Jeffershit”  
“Ah, he's the guy who works at the orphanage, right?” Drew asked, a look of distaste on his face  
“Yup”  
“Well, shit. That guy always was a creep” Warren had joined them and offered his two cents without hesitation. “Where’s Steph?”

“Right here” Steph had entered the room with nothing in her hands. “Let’s get this done.” She pulled up her pant leg and took out three envelopes wrapped around her leg. “In these envelopes there are a couple photographs of both Max and Chloe, and a location written on a piece of paper. Don't open that until you're no longer on Blackwell grounds, Victoria?”  
“Uh huh,” the pixie blonde took a step forward, taking over. She handed Juliet, Drew and Dana a bag each while keeping another for herself. “Okay, in each of those bags there's a prepaid burner phone and some money. It's partially my fault that the girls are in this mess so I'm funding this rescue mission. Loaded on those phones is the number of Steph’s burner as well as some notes about how we should be going about this and as you know, Sean Prescott is a big bad man so... We gotta be careful”  
“That means no using your own cell phones to talk about the rescue, only use the burner ones. No leaving missing person posters lying around just in case and an imperative of not making mistakes” Steph interjected. “Our tech man Warren will be running the only missing person poster we’ll have, a Facebook page for Chloe only since we're not supposed to know about Max” Steph was bothered by that fact but knew she had to hide it for the benefit of the team, “Brooke will be helping Warren with trying to identify Max and Chloe's families while I'll be coordinating you guys. You know your teams. Open those envelopes once off campus and that'll tell you where you're headed. We have two weeks to search the city, good luck!!”

Victoria led the way back to the rest of the assembled group with Dana, Juliet and Drew. “Let's do this shit” Waving Mikey and Samantha over, Drew smiled. “Ready to go?” They both nodded, holding up their bags that they'd packed for the two weeks.  
“Yea” Drew's younger brother, who was shorter and wore glasses but otherwise looked like Drew, smiled and nodded. Samantha also smiled and nodded, she and Mikey were good friends  
“Then let's go” Drew shoved the envelope into his bag then left the room  
Dana walked over to join Trevor and Justin who had both surprised everyone by announcing they wouldn't get high on the trip, they wanted to find Chloe and Max after all, after a brief discussion they left as well. Juliet joined Stella and Alyssa then left as well. Soon, Victoria, Taylor and Courtney had also departed, leaving Warren and Steph alone. “I... I uh better get back to Brooke” Warren stuttered nervously  
“Sure, see ya later”

*****

Dana was sat on the driver's side with Justin to her right and Trevor in the back. “I can't believe Chloe is a few years younger than us. You wouldn't have believed it, that girl is _terrifyingly_ smart. Where we headed, Justin?”  
“Uh...” Justin tore open the envelope, “this is Max?” he held up the photograph  
“I guess so...” Dana took one of the three photographs and Justin handed one back to Trevor  
“Wow, the kid with brown hair and freckles looks young” Trevor commented, looking at the photograph of Max and Chloe together  
“Mhm... Looks like we're headed to San Francisco... Fuck that's a seven hundred mile drive...”  
“I'll take the first three hours of driving then you'll take over, Justin. Trevor, you'll be up third”  
“Okay, Dana”  
“Uh huh”

With that, Dana settled into her three-hour stint of driving

*****

Victoria held her head in her arms, Taylor was driving and Courtney was sat in the back. “Fffffffff...”  
“Los Angeles is a thousand miles away!!” Taylor exclaimed while Courtney was satisfied with groaning  
“Tay, Court. You think you'll be able to manage five hours of driving each?” Victoria asked her two friends, friends that couldn't be more happy with the new Victoria, a Victoria that actually genuinely wanted friends  
“Sure, Tori” Taylor nodded an affirmative at the same moment Courtney spoke  
“Good, cos that way we'll maximize the amount of time we have in LA. It's... Kinda a huge city, just like I feared”  
“We’ll find them, Tori” Courtney reached forward, placing her hand soothingly on Victoria's shoulder  
“Anyone else think Max is cute?” Taylor asked to amused chuckles from the other two girls

*****

“Crap.” Drew groaned, the dark-skinned footballer hated long car rides, even more so if he was the one driving. “Seattle is five hours from here. I say I drive us up there, we find a motel to stay in and we rest ready for a fresh start for the search, tomorrow?”  
“Fine by me...” Mikey called from the back, “we think that's fine” he added on once Samantha nodded her agreement  
“Good”

*****

“Well, it could be worse... Portland isn't that far” Stella mused  
“Steph hasn’t given us much, just the name of Nathan's social worker, Kristine” Juliet mumbled from the passenger side, chewing on the end of her pen she was using to attempt to start making a plan for her interview with Nathan, assuming they found him  
“Not much to go on...” Alyssa sighed from the driver's side

*****

 _You've got this, Gingrich. Everything's gonna be okay, you've been planning this for seventeen days, ever since Max and Chloe ran, ever since Rachel was arrested...!_ The auburn-haired girl couldn't stop pacing backward and forward from the moment she had gotten home. All that planning had led to the tense wait she was struggling through alone in her house.

*****

“How are you feeling, Kate?” a middle-aged dark-skinned woman asked a teen with brown hair that had been pulled up into a bun. “And that hairstyle suits you”  
“I'm feeling okay, Ms. Grant” the girl called Kate replied politely, “thank you'  
“Great!! I bet you're happier now, huh?”  
“Yeah, I certainly am” Kate smiled widely and settled down into her favorite couch at the therapist’s office

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kate's in the fic now, just a cameo/teaser, her role will be important later on in the fic


	19. The daily grind

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally was able to get a whole chapter Together!

Day Sixteen

“Yeah, I’d like two burgers please” The tall black-haired girl smiled at the woman in the burger truck. She had become quite the regular at that burger truck despite it being obvious that she was homeless, she was still wearing the same clothes she had been the very first day the woman in the truck had seen her and accordingly she smelled a little ripe.  
The woman who worked in the truck in the mornings ignored the poor girl's smell and provided a discount. She allowed Chloe to get two cheeseburgers for two dollars. “Okay, Hun, two cheeseburgers comin' right up!” the blonde haired woman replied enthusiastically, eager to help the homeless young woman however she could. “And a good morning to you too Elizabeth”  
“How are you today?” Chloe, who was going by her middle name to help conceal her identity, along with the dyed hair and the tatty old clothes  
“Oh, same old same old, the little 'un kept me up half the night...” the older woman tapped her tummy with the end of her fingers, indicating the little girl growing inside her. “She already wants to get out and meet her mommy. She sleeps all day and kicks and twists all night”  
“I'm sorry to hear...” Chloe began

“Where should we begin our search?” a voice asked, interrupting what Chloe was saying to the friend she had made and Chloe's head snapped around. “We’re not even sure if they're here in this here city”  
_I know that voice... Oh shit!! It's Courtney's!!_ Chloe's eyes widened in a slight panic. Chloe knew Courtney Wagner was Victoria Chase’s lackey and that Victoria Chase was responsible for forcing her and Rachel to accelerate their plans, fleeing Blackwell before they were completely ready to do so  
“We’ll find them both, Court” the aforementioned pixie blonde spoke to the other two girls, Courtney and Taylor, her ever-present lackeys  
_Fuck... And Victoria too!!_ Chloe allowed herself enough time to slow her breathing before she picked up the two cheeseburgers, placed down a few bucks for them, turned around and started walking away. Her eyes met Victoria's briefly as she turned and she couldn't get away fast enough as she speed walked away, around the block and back to the building that had both made their home over two weeks beforehand. _That was **too** close... At least my disguise works..._

*****

Day sixty-five

“Steph” a girl’s voice came out of the slightly tinny speaker on Steph's cell phone, Steph hadn't been expecting the call so had rushed downstairs at the sound of her ringtone going off from where she'd left her phone amongst all the paperwork she had from trying to find out what she could about Max and Chloe and their families  
“Ah, Brooke. What news do you have for me?” Steph couldn't help but smile, Brooke and her boyfriend Warren had been an excellent help in trying to find Max and Chloe  
“I found them” Brooke smiled at Steph happily, almost bouncing up and down on her couch in excitement to relay the good news she had been searching for for over two months  
“You have?” Steph sounded hopeful  
“Yes. Can I come over?” Brooke replied. It was by an unspoken agreement that they didn't discuss the Max and Chloe case over the phone if they could help it  
“Sure” Steph began opening the binders she always packed away every evening before going to bed in case one of her parents turned up unexpectedly. They were quite good at calling before returning but Steph didn't want to risk anyone finding out that she was looking for Max and Chloe. Despite having several binders she couldn't pack everything away every night so she tended to leave the maps and stuff she knew wouldn't raise any questions neatly piled up on the table. She had purchased a safe with some of the money she had set aside from her part-time job and the binders went in there every time she left the house or went to bed. She kept the burner phones on her at all times, hiding both of them in her pillow while asleep when the search parties were out searching for Max and Chloe at the weekends else the one she used to communicate with the search parties lived in the safe and the one she used to speak to Rachel was always in her pocket or in her pillow

It was a good half hour before Steph heard the knock on her door, hiding the stuff she had gathered about Chloe and Max she moved to the door, checking through the peephole to make sure it wasn't any unwanted guests. Mr. Amber had visited once or twice in the first few weeks following Rachel's arrest, to Steph's surprise he hadn't wanted to thank her for helping Rachel keep her place at Blackwell, rather he just came to her seeking the end of the mess that Rachel had created. He had guessed correctly that Rachel and Steph were close and had appealed to Steph to tell him if she found out anything regarding the two kidnapped girls. Even Sean Prescott had knocked on her door to try to woo her over to his side with a sizable bribe. He had explained how he could get her whatever she had wanted. She had politely declined the offer, citing that she knew nothing about the whereabouts of Max and Chloe, a half lie. She only knew where they _could_ be, not where they _were_. Sighing out in relief at the realization it was indeed her friend and not the two _bastards_ who wanted to find Max and Chloe for their own nefarious goals, Steph opened the doors and pulled Brooke in. “Hey!!” Brooke had exclaimed in surprise having not expected Steph to yank on her like that  
“Sorry, Brooke.” She quickly shut the door and locked it with all of the locks, not just the one that she usually used. “I had a visit from our very own rich fuck earlier this week, and before that, it was the district attorney knocking on my door”  
“James Amber came here?” Brooke's eyebrow had raised slightly in concern  
“Yeah, he did. He didn't even thank me for helping his daughter with those recordings of her classes” Steph glared at the wall, after everything James Amber was her third least favorite person. Even though it was Victoria who did all the work Steph had still helped out.  
“The hell?” Brooke looked slightly put out by the revelation that James Amber didn't seem to care about his only daughter. It was scary for Brooke to realize that Steph was not the only child whose parents didn't appear to give a flying fuck  
“Nah, he was more interested in how I had twisted Victoria Chase’s arm into helping Rachel...” Steph replied with a shrug as if what they were discussing was the norm or in any way acceptable  
“The hell? Doesn't he care about his daughter’s future?” Brooke looked mad. Sure, she hadn't been that close to Rachel or Chloe but she felt close to them both after spending most of her free time trying to find them and most of her waking hours thinking about how to help them  
“Probably not, Brooke. Let's face it, he’s James Amber, the district attorney. No district attorney would want a delinquent daughter would he?” Steph narrowed her eyes, she found herself hating that man more and more  
“I guess not” Brooke had mumbled in reply  
“He was more interested in fixing up 'Rachel's mess' as he so eloquently put it.” She scowled then added “Fixing it up to Sean Prescott's standards”  
“You don't think...?” Brooke began before cutting herself off, thinking better of it, of saying what she had been thinking  
“I don't think what?” Steph had prompted, they had all agreed, everyone involved in the search for Max and Chloe had signed an oath to be completely honest with each other at all times. To not leave a single stone unturned in their search for the girls. There were exceptions of course, like the cities that would be searched would only be told to those who would be searching that particular city. Too far away to search over the weekends, they had resolved to go out every chance they had, every break and every vacation but only Steph herself knew all three of the cities  
“T-that James Amber is in Sean Prescott's pocket?” Brooke stuttered over her words  
“Oh my god, I hope not. I hope he's just attempting to avoid a scandal” Steph grumbled  
“Well... Steph. I have news and photographs”  
“Good girl.” Steph grinned at Brooke and she took out several photographs  
“These two photographs are of several graves I found in the cemetery, I marked their position on the map you gave me” Brooke explained, the first photograph was of a gravesite, the headstone of which read

 _'Joyce and William Price_  
_September 4, 1955, and November 17, 1959 – December 12, 1997_  
_Much loved and always remembered. Mother and father, friend, sister and brother'_

“Holy shit, is that them? Are they Chloe's parents?” Steph exclaimed excitedly  
“Well right next to that grave was another one” she took out the photograph and read out what was on it, “Chloe Price and Maxine Caulfield, March 11, 1994, and September 21, 1995, to December 12, 1997. Pirate sisters in heaven”  
“...” Steph opened her mouth to speak but then closed it again. “They would've been buried together?” Steph asked quietly  
“Yup. That must be the Max and Chloe we've been looking for. Max Caulfield and Chloe Price” Brooke had become enthused by her discovery. After many many hours pouring over her drone's camera, fitted in awkwardly around classes and the short daylight hours of winter, she had slowly lost hope.  
“We have their names now, now we gotta try to find their relatives” Steph smiled widely, they were closer than they had ever been to finding out who was supposed to be looking after Max and Chloe  
“Easier said than done.” Brooke's voice came from behind her own laptop which hid her face, “Caulfield is an Irish name. Who's to say that Max’s family didn't return to Ireland after the funeral?”  
“Shit, you're right” Steph frowned, it had been so much easier in her head, searching for the girls during the breaks, she had thought they could get lucky and find them on their first outing. Rachel had been so adamant that Chloe would leave a trail they could find and that would guide them in. Eventually, they had come to realize that perhaps they never even made it as far as those cities so Steph had rallied the troops and encouraged them all to search other towns and cities at the weekends.

“Well, we now know who we're looking for, all we need to do now is type this into Facebook and maybe we'll get a result.” Brooke and her drone had been needed for other things over the Christmas break and during weekends while the searches were going on. Brooke was kept busy with other tasks while the others were away so hadn't been able to search the cemetery as quickly as they had originally planned. Brooke provided security for Steph while everyone else was away by keeping an eye on all interested parties, namely James Amber, David Madsen, Mark Jefferson, Raymond Wells and Sean Prescott. She was responsible for watching their routines and making sure they didn't happen across any leads to where the girls were while the others were out searching for them. She also flew the drone as each search party left Arcadia Bay to make sure nobody was following.  
Steph tapped away on her laptop for a few moments. “Bingo!! Ryan and Vanessa Caulfield!!” she exclaimed loudly  
“You found them on Facebook?” Brooke inquired, hardly daring to believe their luck  
“Nope. I just searched for obituaries for Joyce, William, Chloe or Max and their names were there as the people responsible for arranging the funerals for the four”  
“So Max's family have no idea that Max is even alive? Or Chloe?”  
“No. And it's probably not the best idea to inform them, we ought to wait til we've found them both. Winter’s almost over now, they'll be able to get a better chance of survival once it's over. And we will find them by the end of summer. We will have months to search for them!”  
“That's still a good five months away, Steph” Brooke cautioned

*****

Day one hundred six

“Maxi?” Chloe's voice was thick and filled with sleep as she spoke, she had woken naturally as she always had and had nudged Max to wake her up from her peaceful slumber  
“Yeah, Chlobear?” Max was wrapped up in her ripe smelling sleeping bag, they hadn't had a chance to do any laundry yet, though both Max and Chloe were completely oblivious to the smell by the fifth week on the streets  
“Are you okay?” the older girl reached out and took Max's hand, able to tell right away that something was bothering the smaller girl  
“She ain't coming” Max whispered quietly, timidly  
“Maxi... Don't torture yourself like that... You know I'm keeping an eye on the newspapers” Chloe had known immediately that Max was talking about Rachel, their blonde guardian angel hadn't made contact in any way since she was arrested over a hundred days beforehand, a hundred days that had blurred for both girls, into a blur of routine. Both girls always woke up before eight, drilled into doing so by waking for school every morning, Chloe went off in search of breakfast then they spent the rest of the day on the roof of the building they were hidden in if it was dry or in their air duct they called home if the weather wasn't conducive to sitting outside. The girls spent a few hours on each of the core subjects Max had to learn, math, English and science, as well as learning new words and even sign language so Max could communicate easier with those around her. They would then have a quick play that in fact often lasted a few hours. As the day drew to a close both girls would watch the sun go down while Max did a bit of photography if she saw something that caught her eye. Finally, they would both crawl back into the building’s air ducts to return to their little nest and sleep  
“I know, Chlobear.” Max looked incredibly conflicted, she knew deep down that she wouldn't be able to talk in front of Rachel, at least not for awhile but... She felt incredibly guilty about that fact because Rachel had shown so much kindness and love. Max knew that they were free because of her yet she couldn't help being nervous around her, a fact which Max found infuriating

“I'm gonna go off and get some breakfast, check that nobody's around and find a motel we can stay at” Chloe smiled at the other, younger girl knowing that Max was as safe as she could be in their cramped yet cozy hiding place. “You know to stay here” Chloe spoke firmly, Max hadn't left the safety of the building for a fair old time, she and Chloe went to the roof a lot, at least twice a day for a few hours a time, on nice days they didn't leave the roof until after the sun had set, even if it was an incredibly cold winter’s day. They had been forced to stay in the building for most of their time, Chloe only slipped out to grab some food from wherever she could. Since Victoria’s appearance in the city three months beforehand, which was also the reason why they both stayed in the air ducts of their building for much of the time, Chloe hadn't wanted to risk getting food at the burger truck she had been using since they first ventured out so was reduced to searching for scraps. Fortunately, she was often able to find a take out that had been put in the garbage the night before, yes it was invariably cold but it still tasted acceptable and was still a hundred percent edible.

Chloe had just grabbed a box of cold noodles from a pile of garbage and since it wasn’t very full, had to resign herself to yet another day without eating. She never told Max that she hadn't eaten, she just told her she had eaten while on her way back to their building. She made her final stop and froze in place, horror etched across her face at what she had discovered. _No... No... That can't be happening!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh no... What has Chloe discovered?? See you next chapter to find out!!


	20. Misery

Day one hundred five

“S.G.” a gentle yet hoarse voice emanated from the speaker in the auburn-haired girl’s phone. It sounded like the person who had called has been crying and screaming a lot. The auburn-haired girl hadn’t heard from the other girl since she called to announce that their first search had ended in failure, that they had not been able to find Max and Chloe. That had been over two months beforehand, seventy-two days had passed  
“Yes, R.A.?” Steph replied, immediately adopting a concerned tone, she was still the other's friend after all and she had been concerned. Steph had been planning to call her about their next search which was due to commence the very next day but the other had beaten her to it  
“I'm sorry” the blonde sniffed  
“Why are you sorry, Rachel?” Steph had an image of Rachel sitting on her bed, alone, isolated, probably smelly if Victoria's story was anything to go by and scared, very very scared. In Steph's mind's eye, the blonde would be wiping the snot and tears off her face. Steph had, at that moment, wanted nothing more than to run to Rachel's house and give the girl a massive hug  
“You can't contact me anymore, I'm sorry” Rachel had covered her previous vulnerability with one of her masks and was suddenly acting cold and curt to one of her friends  
“Rachel, calm down. Take a deep breath and explain, slowly, What’s happened?” Steph attempted to calm Rachel in order to get answers, she knew it was serious the moment Rachel attempted to put one of her masks on  
“I'm sorry... I can't keep talking to you, you'll find out why soon enough but you need to promise me two things, Steph”  
“Rachel...”  
“Promise me!!” the blonde snapped  
“Promise what?” Steph, though bemused had managed to keep her confusion out of her tone, knowing it wasn't what the thespian needed right now  
“Promise me you'll find Chloe and Max... Promise me you won't contact me again, I won't be able to help you anymore”  
“Rach, what the everlasting _fuck_...?” _Click_. The phone line went dead as Rachel ended the call, interrupting whatever Steph had been about to continue with

Pulling out her other burner phone she fired off a text to Victoria before attempting to ring Rachel's burner phone again. _Click_. “We're sorry; you have reached a number that has been disconnected or is no longer in service. If you feel you have reached this recording in error, please check the number and try your call again”  
_Shit_  
“We're sorry; you have reached a number that has been disconnected or is no longer in service. If you feel you have reached this recording in error, please check the number and try your call again.”

Ring ring. _Click_. “S.G, what the fuck is going on, it’s six in the damn morning” Victoria's snippy pissed off tone filled Steph's bedroom  
“I'm sorry I woke you, Vee, it’s... We need to talk”  
“We are talking, Stephanie” not even Victoria Chase used Steph's full name, not anymore and definitely not on the burner phones where they were supposed to be nameless  
“Like in person. Can you come to mine?” _Like literally nobody calls me Stephanie anymore, you do realize that, right Icky Vicky?_ Steph had managed to contain the inflammatory remark for the sake of the conversation  
“Ugh sure” Victoria ended the call and Steph knew she would be getting ready

*****

“THAT TRAITOROUS BITCH!!” Victoria roared. She had arrived at Steph's house and had just received the news that Rachel had said that she couldn't help anymore, and she was apocalyptically pissed. “She seriously made you promise that we wouldn't give up on Max and Chloe?! When she has done all but that?!”  
“Victoria, please. Calm the hell down” Steph replied nervously, checking the windows were shut. To her relief they were  
“Seriously, you're actually asking me to calm down...?” She moved toward the door. “I'm going to go talk some sense into that bitch!”  
“Vic, you can't... Remember she's under house arrest” Steph attempted to reason with the pixie blonde Queen Bee who had already gone nuclear  
“Fuck that shit” Victoria spat  
“Victoria _Maribeth_ Chase!!” Steph exclaimed, the shock of hearing her full name forced Victoria to stop in her tracks. “If you do that we’ll all go to prison and nobody will be around to help Max and Chloe!!”  
“Shit... You're right” Victoria sat down, allowing herself to sip on the hot chocolate Steph had grabbed for her

*****

Day one hundred six

“Fuck... I can't tell Max about this...” Chloe closed the newspaper and turned right around, making sure the newspaper vendor didn't see her tear stained face as she hurried back along the streets, away from the vendor and toward the motel she had paid for two nights at. Words from the article continued to pop up uninvited in her mind’s eye. _Kidnapping_. “Shit” Chloe muttered, wiping her eyes as she pushed through the emotions. She had to get back to the room before she broke down completely. She had, of course, paid for the motel with cash and left a false name.

“Shit” Chloe slumped down on the bed in the motel, a whole host of unpleasant what ifs passing through her mind. _What if..._ She stood and rushed to the shower, determined to distract herself somewhat with a scalding hot shower, only to stop seconds from starting it up, she still had to go get Max. Feeling awful she returned to the building, sneaking past security without getting caught and crawling down the air duct toward the upshaft that led to where Max would still be waiting.

Max immediately noticed the distinctive clattering of someone crawling through the air ducts, she pulled out the small knife Chloe had reluctantly given her and waited with bated breath for whoever was sneaking through the air ducts to make themselves known. Eventually, Chloe's familiar head of pitch black hair rounded the corner and came into view. Letting out her breath Max crawled out of her sleeping bag, stowed her blade away again, shuddered and was immediately wrapped up in a loving hug from the former blunette. Chloe smiled at Max reassuringly and even though Max knew that something was bothering Chloe, she knew that the girl would eventually open up about it. “Hey, Maxipad” Chloe cooed gently, reassuringly, putting on a brave face despite Max already having observed that something was bothering her.  
“Chlobear” the innocent girl whispered  
“When we get to the motel, Maxipad” Chloe promised, knowing that Max was very perceptive, with her at least, and that she wouldn't be able to avoid the conversation for long  
Max smiled a small smile and led Chloe back out through the maze of air ducts they had managed to get lost in every night, never once sleeping in the same spot.

Max sighed and fell backward onto the bed, it was still early in the day yet Max was exhausted. She knew Chloe would have to go out scouting for the day and she would need to stay in the room, as a result, she fought off the exhaustion and reached out to take Chloe's hand. It wasn't uncommon for the two girls to find solace in holding each others’ hands. “Maxi” Chloe began, to get Max's attention and despite herself, the taller girl grinned as the petite girl focused her entire attention upon Chloe.

*****

 _I am such an idiot_. The thought had crossed a blonde girl’s mind thousands if not millions of times since the day she had gotten herself arrested. _The fuck did I do that for?_ Rachel gripped her wrists and squeezed, welcoming back the physical pain that was a mere distraction from the emotional turmoil she felt. She knew she had fucked up the moment she allowed herself to be seen by the police officer and despite how much she wanted to take back what had happened, she knew she wasn't in some video game that could be soft reset back to the previous save point, or be gifted some mystical powers that would allow her to look back on that photograph Max had taken in the hotel room, the one that captured all three of their smiling faces for eternity, and zap herself back to that moment to be granted a second chance to fix what she had fucked up. She knew that because of her rash actions, Max and Chloe were out somewhere alone and unprepared with only a small portion of the money she had originally planned to have available. Ideally, she would have been able to withdraw all the money in her bank account but... She had panicked. 

Rachel had chucked away Jefferson's gun into the sea from the coast road she had traveled along once she had gotten Max out of the orphanage, she knew that she couldn't be caught with a weapon of any kind else it would only solidify Prescott's claims against her and she had discarded her own gun as they drove into Portland, she had figured at the time that Prescott wouldn't be able to find them in the big city. She had been right, mostly, though Prescott had merely caused _everyone else_ to start searching for her instead with an amber alert sent out for the two girls she had saved. _I should've tried to find another way out, we could've still gotten out of the fucking city had I kept my cool_. Rachel had spent a few hours pouring over the layout of the hospital that she had encouraged Max to take a photograph of with her Polaroid camera once they had gotten to the hotel room from dropping Nathan off and therefore knew where all the different exits were, she wasn’t sure but that police officer didn't seem to be there for any particular reason. The photograph was taken with a Polaroid Camera that was impounded as evidence and could, in fact, be damning evidence that she had indeed taken Max from her 'home' in the orphanage. She hoped that chucking out the gun would be enough to prevent Jefferson from accusing her of breaking in armed since it was his gun after all, or at least let her off on a lack of evidence but she had settled in for the long fight. Her first day in court had been set and she knew she wouldn't win, but maybe, just maybe she could aim for a stalemate? Rachel of all people knew she couldn't lie, that would detract from her credibility so she had settled on fighting whatever aspect of the charges she had, aiming for there being no evidence that she had done something. She was also thankful for the first time that none of Max's difficulties were documented, she would be willing to bet that if the court had caught wind of that she would be in for a much harsher sentence even if it meant that Prescott would be dragged under scrutiny at the minimum. The one thing that was guaranteed though was that Prescott wouldn't dare mention Nathan, to do so would open him up to all sorts of awkward questions that Rachel would take utmost pleasure in asking herself and essentially be suicide for him and the orphanage. _I shouldn't have given Chloe the video evidence... I know it showed me sneaking into the Dark Room and would be instant courtroom suicide but at least I would’ve taken Prescott down with me_. Once again, Rachel gripped her wrists tightly, squeezed more and twisted, her thoughts taking a decidedly dark turn

*****

“Maxi” Chloe had gone from being playful and joking to serious in a matter of seconds, grabbing Max's complete attention. “I have had news. Rachel won't be coming to be with us for awhile, if at all”  
“Chlobear?” the shorter girl looked at Chloe, the confusion clearly apparent. _What do you mean, Chlobear? Why won't Rach be able to be with us? I know she wanted nothing more than to run away with us_  
“You remember she was arrested, Maxi?” Chloe replied gently and Max nodded, “Well, they have enough to take her to court, they're giving her a criminal trial, she might go to jail”  
_Jail?!?!?!_ Max's eyes widened as far as they'd go, instantly the innocent girl was panicking. “What?!” Max exclaimed. _Rachel isn't bad!! She saved us!! She saved all of us from the bad men!!_  
“I know, it's not fair. It's my fault, I shouldn't have accepted her getting caught like that, I should've stopped her or something. Made her think, or at least not taken the evidence against Prescott and Jefferson!!” Chloe was tearing herself down because of her imagined failings while looking dejectedly at the boot that she had hidden the evidence in.  
Max shook her head and squeezed the older girl into a hug. “No.” She whispered, _no, not your fault_  
Chloe sighed, settling back to read out the small portion of the newspaper that concerned their missing friend. " _Rachel Amber, daughter of Tillamook County's District Attorney, James Amber accused of crimes_ " Chloe scrunched up the rest of their newspaper and threw it out the window in a fit of rage. " _James Amber, District Attorney for Tillamook County is facing uncomfortable scrutiny after his daughter was arrested on charges of kidnapping, trespassing and armed assault. Rachel Amber was arrested three months ago on various charges including the kidnapping of two children, Chloe and Maxine Prescott who had lived at Arcadia Bay's only orphanage, Saint Annabeth's Home for Vulnerable Children. Prescott, an eminent businessman in Oregon is leading the drive to find the two girls' bodies and ensure that Amber faces the consequences of what she has done, his assistant Jefferson said in a statement that they both distinctly believe that the girls may well have perished but as of yet there is no solid evidence to support that conclusion. If either of the girls are seen then please call the Orphanage, alternatively, a missing person's Facebook page run by Chloe's fellow college student Warren Graham is also available_ " Chloe scrunched that page up too and chucked it at the wall. "Fuckers!!"

It took a long time for Chloe to cool off enough to speak once again. She was livid with Prescott, Jefferson and the system for landing them all in a shitty situation. “Maxi, I want to get a motel room on June eleventh, that's Rachel's first day in court. I want to see the news” Normally they wouldn't get another motel room so soon but... It was an important day and after Rachel has perhaps sacrificed everything for the two girls, it was, honestly the minimum they could do. I'm glad she had the chance to explain what that word meant though and why Jeffershit had gotten so pissed off about it. _I hate that fucking abusive and pretentious creep_.


	21. Morning plans

Day one hundred six

Chloe led on her side, spooning the younger and smaller girl, the best friend of her entire life. Max had been so upset by Chloe's revelation that Rachel wouldn't be coming to spend time with them anytime soon that Chloe hadn't been able to do any of the chores she knew she had to do. In the end she had made the decision to not even attempt to start on those chores, not the laundry, not leaving a new part of the trail of breadcrumbs she would still be leaving in case Rachel ever came looking for them, not getting them decent food for a change, not even coercing Max to have a bath. Instead, Chloe led on the couch of the motel room they had rented for two nights with her arms around her best friend. Chloe had decided it would be cruel to leave Max to come to terms with that on her own and so she and Max had curled up together on their couch, the petite brunette feebly clinging to Chloe’s shirt as her chest heaved in heartrending sobs. Max hadn't known Rachel for very long but it couldn't be denied that the blonde thespian had made a huge impact on the brunette, she was only the second person to see Max as a person, not just as a presumably mindless not to mention _slow_ partner for the rebellious Chloe Prescott. A partner in crime that the rebel could show a soft spot for and look after. Max missed Rachel so bad it hurt, she dimly wondered why she cared about someone she barely knew. Max had spent some of her time she had with Rachel just watching the blonde who was always more than happy to shoot a lazy smile in her direction. Max knew that her relationship with Chloe was by far and away the deeper of the two proper friendships she had, the petite girl simply _couldn't cope_ being away from Chloe, not even for a few moments, unless in a familiar environment whereas she just _missed_ Rachel and her bubbly personality.

Max had fallen asleep safe in Chloe's arms, the former blunette had waited patiently for the petite girl to fall asleep. Admittedly it was no hardship, Chloe enjoyed every moment she spent snuggling with her best friend, her sister but the taller girl freed herself from the younger girl's vice grip once she was asleep and tiptoed toward the door, determined not to wake Max. She had spent the entire time that she was snuggled with Max thinking hard about how to help their friend in need and while Chloe knew Rachel wouldn't approve of any attempt to help her since any plan she put in place would put herself and Max in danger, she knew she had to try. Chloe knew that, with careful thought, she could come up with a plan to mitigate at least some of the charges that Rachel was facing with minimal risk to herself and Max. Chloe had decided to go and extend their stay at that motel by another night since they still had to make all their preparations for the upcoming few months such as laundry, scouting and other prep and they had spent most of the day cuddling and comforting each other.

“Hey” she smiled at the person on the front desk  
“Good evening” the man looked up at her and smiled. Chloe hadn’t had a shower since she had been cuddling Max until she fell asleep. “What can I do to help you?” he asked, trying his hardest to ignore Chloe's smell, “do you need any extra soaps or anything?” immediately the man felt guilty over the low blow but Chloe simply ignored it  
“I’d like to extend our stay for another night, room 119.”  
“Sure, that'll be ninety-seven dollars please. Will you be paying with cash or a card?”  
“Cash, please... Here” the black haired girl pulled out a hundred dollar bill, placing it down on the desk. The man’s eyes widened, though he didn't see too many homeless despite the motel being on the more affordable side, he couldn't imagine many homeless folks had a hundred dollar bill to hand. Most begged for their money and therefore ended up with at most smaller denomination bills. Chloe scoffed at him, “What? Money is money, right? Why d'ya care whether it comes in fives or a hundred?” Chloe was being snippy with the man since she hated anyone paying attention to them, always scared that it could get back to Prescott and the orphanage and that it would, therefore, put them both in danger  
“Sorry” the man replied quickly while looking abashed. He accepted the money, rung Chloe up and extended their stay by one more night. “There you go” he smiled at her and nodded.  
“Thanks, dude” Chloe smiled and retreated back to the room, a plan already half-formed in her mind.

“Max” Chloe whispered. She had let Max sleep for a few hours before waking her having occupied herself with the TV during that time, “Max, time to wake up sweetie...” Max mumbled to herself, grumbling about leaving her pleasant sleep. “Max, you can't sleep on the couch. You need to have a bath or shower and go to bed properly.” Max, still mostly asleep, merely mumbled some jumbled nonsense, rolled over to face away from Chloe and settled down to sleep once again. “Fuck’s sake, Maxipad” Chloe mumbled, rolling her eyes and poking the other girl’s nose  
“Mmph go 'way” Max grumbled, a little more understandable in her grumblings since, despite her best efforts, she was slowly waking up

“Bother” Chloe giggled, poking Max's back. “Bother, bother, bother, bother.” A month or so before the whole thing with the Dark Room came to light, Chloe had borrowed Rachel's portable DVD player and had, along with Max, attempted to watch the Harry Potter movies. Attempted being the operative term since Max had gotten so terrified by the final battle between Harry and Voldemort that she had sprinted from their room and into the bathroom, locking the door behind herself where she remained shaking uncontrollably in her terror. Chloe had then had to scramble to hide the DVD player and the DVD of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, which was, like most movies, banned in the orphanage for religious reasons and subsequently had to spend almost an hour coaxing Max out of the bathroom. Chloe had then persuaded Rachel to make a DVD of 'Potter Puppet Pals’ and take it to the Orphanage at haste. The blunette had used her cell that the other girl had purchased for her, another banned item that Chloe had had to keep well hidden, to text Rachel and explain the situation. Rachel had guiltily agreed to help and make a DVD of the YouTube videos, Chloe didn't have a laptop and had limited funds on her prepaid phone so Rachel quickly downloaded the videos from YouTube and made a DVD for Max instead of asking Chloe to use her phone which wasn’t very high spec anyway and could barely run YouTube. Rachel felt guilty as she had thought that the PG movie would be fine for Max to watch and therefore had encouraged Chloe to watch the movie with Max. ‘Bothering Snape’ had quickly become Max's favorite of the Potter Puppet Pals shorts and they had watched it repeatedly throughout that night. Chloe had reluctantly returned the DVD player, headphones and DVDs the next morning since it was unlikely Max would be okay with watching anymore movies, for awhile at least. Chloe hoped that Max would eventually agree to try to watch the movie again sometime in the future as her fear toward the movie had been somewhat mitigated by the hours watching the shorts

“’Kay!! ‘Kay!!” Max rolled back toward Chloe and swatted her hand away while giggling  
“Wakey, wakey Maxi”  
“’m up!” Max sat up, rubbing her eyes and swung her legs out to stand and suddenly thinking better of it. She gestured at her socks, prompting Chloe to stand and grab them quickly. Slipping them on to Max's feet for her she rubbed Max's back.  
“Feeling better?” Chloe asked, rubbing Max's back some  
“Yep” Max nodded, her eyes were still red but she looked a lot better after a good night’s sleep on a comfortable bed. She grabbed Chloe's hand as they walked into the bathroom to do Max's bath

Twenty minutes passed where Max's intermittent giggling could be heard in the room as Chloe attempted to make Max's time in the tub more fun with the aid of a rubber duck and they both emerged from the bathroom. It was six in the evening so Chloe tucked Max into bed and left to go find some good food for a change. She grabbed a pizza from a take out as it was something Max had liked the few times they had been able to grab one and returned to the room. They shared the pizza, Max's eyes had widened considerably at the gorgeous taste of the steaming hot pizza, and the petite girl ate a whole third of the XXL pizza while Chloe gorged herself on the rest of it. “Chlobear?” Max asked  
“Yes, Maxi?” Chloe had a patient caring tone she used with Max alone, a tone that got as far as it could possibly get from her usual aggressive tone  
“Love” The petite girl had poked Chloe's nose, relaying a simple message, ‘I love you’. Despite the meaning being simple, anyone who hadn't taken the time to get to know Max, or teach her wouldn't have understood  
“I love you too, ni ni Maxi”  
“Ni ni” The small girl nuzzled her pillow, yawning and closing her eyes, safe in the knowledge that Chloe was with her.

*****

Day one hundred seven

Both girls were up early the next morning, Chloe had to leave the motel to complete the chores that she had neglected in the wake of the revelation that Rachel would be facing trial for helping them escape so she roused Max with a cuddle and soon had to leave. Taking their meager selection of clothes which were nothing compared to what Rachel had in her walk-in closet or even their little closet that they had had back in the orphanage. Chloe frowned regretfully at that thought, the vast majority of her band tee collection was back in that closet and had most likely been disposed of by that point. Despite changing her style slightly, the girl missed her band tees. Pushing that thought aside Chloe, dressed in a loose fitting and somewhat whiffy tee and jeans that were just as whiffy, pulled open the door to the laundromat and smiled at the empty room since she wasn't really in a social mood that day, not after hearing that Rachel was likely to end up in jail for a fair amount of time unless she did something to stop it. Both Max and Chloe had kept back one oversized tee each that they could wear in bed and around the room at the motel. Even though both girls shared a sleeping bag, and before that a bed, neither girl did so without wearing nightwear. “Shit, this fucking shit is expensive” Chloe hissed in irritation, she knew she would need to do two loads, one for their clothes and one for their sleeping bag and it would cost them about forty bucks to do. Grumbling that it might have been cheaper to buy new clothes every three months she slammed the machine shut and started it up then went on a hunt for breakfast.

Returning to their room a half hour later, Chloe had managed to snag some bacon, eggs and pancakes from a diner. Handing Max's portion over to the still sleepy girl sat in bed, she retreated to the other side of the bed to eat her own. “Maxi?” Chloe spoke around her mouthful of egg and Max merely rolled her eyes, poking Chloe's cheek. The taller girl nodded and swallowed before attempting to speak again. “Max, I’d like to get a few photographs today, I'm sure our friend would appreciate them”  
Max nodded eagerly. “Yes, yes, yes!!” It wasn't often Max had the opportunity to explore and take photos in different places so she was incredibly excited by the idea, even more so by what the photographs would be used for  
“Then finish eating and we’ll get going after showers” Chloe was also planning to check on the laundromat on the way to the locations she had picked out for their photoshoots, to switch over the laundry to the driers. _After that_ , Chloe pondered to herself, _and redoing our hair, maybe we'll go to a few touristy locations so Max can take a few photos, but not before we have the photos I need to put my plan into action..._


	22. Schemes

Day 107

Max was incredibly confused when the black-haired girl she couldn't go a day without returned, some would say that it was love between the two girls but Max didn't have the self-awareness to acknowledge that fact. She felt _something_ for the girl but wasn't aware of what it was, that she was in love with her best friend, the one girl who hadn't ever given up on her. Chloe had returned with hair dye remover and yet more colors, baffling the younger girl beyond measure. “Come on Maxi, we’re going out today” she held out her hand for Max who nodded and crossed over to the other girl without hesitation, she trusted Chloe implicitly and had done for years. 

Chloe led them into the bathroom where she unrolled a towel she had grabbed from the laundry room on her way back, placing it around Max's shoulders before she started to work on her hair. “Chlobear?” Max asked quietly, trying to express how unnerved she was by the taller punk's actions and the mystery  
“Maxi, Maxi, it’s just for our little photoshoot later, I need you looking all au natural” Chloe managed to hide her little mischievous smirk from the smaller girl that would have alerted the younger girl to Chloe’s scheming, not that she wanted to hide anything from the younger girl, she just didn't want Max to worry.  
_Huh?_ Max couldn't help it, she tilted her head slightly in the trademark Max Caulfield way that made her look, in Chloe's opinion, adorkable.  
“Oh, Maxi, trust me you'll look fantastic” Chloe replied happily. _Just like you always do_  
“Al nat...” Max attempted to repeat what Chloe had said  
“Au. A-u. Au Natural. Nat-ur-al. It means no makeup or... Hair dye” Chloe's eyes glinted as she spoke with a grin that usually spelled trouble in one way or another  
Max nodded, not understanding the implications of what her best friend had meant. Chloe wetted Max's hair then revealed her secret weapon; dish cleaner. She had spent some time researching for her little side quest and had found the harsher the chemical, the better it would work. Chloe had bleached Max's hair when they had stayed in a motel for the first time at the very beginning of their lives on the streets and Chloe was somewhat relieved that after a few washes the colorless hair below the black hair dye was being exposed. “Gonna need to dye your hair up again, Maxi” Chloe advised, pulling out a dye that was as close to Max's original color as she could get. “This is the best I could find under such short notice.” 

Chloe knew Max didn't understand her true intentions and the fact that the little brunette trusted her so completely was once again rammed home. Gulping at the thought of how easily Max could get hurt by trusting her so, Chloe resolved that she would give anything to protect Max. Had she not thought of her little scheme there would be no way she could even comprehend doing what she found herself planning, the danger alone would have been enough to stay even the former blunette’s impulsive nature. Humming quietly, Chloe applied the dye to Max's hair then, while waiting to wash it off, left to go get the laundry. Upon her return and once she had dumped the laundry on the spare bed, the girls, as always, shared, she washed out the excess dye, nodded to herself in appreciation and guided Max back to the mirror to let her see her hair.  
“Wowser” Max had whispered, reaching out and touching her hair. It had been so long since Max had had natural hair, a hundred seven days, she had almost forgotten how she used to look  
“I'm glad you like it, Maxi. Now gather up your photography shit while I do my own hair” the taller girl disappeared into the bathroom while Max grabbed her camera and sat on the bed, fiddling with the settings while Chloe worked on her own hair

Emerging an hour later with a towel wrapped around her head, Chloe waved Max over. “Bath time, Maxi.” Grumbling, Max reluctantly stood and made her way over to the bathroom under Chloe's watchful eye. Plopping down into the perfectly warm water she relaxed as Chloe gently guided her hands through the motions of scrubbing herself down, being careful not to allow Max to put too much force into washing herself. “I know you don't like bath time, Maxi which is why I always let you play but we're in a bit of a hurry today...” Max nodded again. “Tell me about your photography.” Max immediately went off on a complex and pretty thorough explanation of some obscure point in photography, wowing the older girl with her knowledge of photography, as she always did. _They called you a fucking retard Max... Those hypocritical fuckers didn't know anything about you! They went as far as calling me a fucking genius and even I’m struggling to keep up with you here!_

“And that's why I like analog” Max concluded. She had been barely aware of what was going on around her, so focused on her passion. She was wearing her most comfortable outfit and was stood on the other side of the shower curtain behind which Chloe was having a shower, Chloe having finished helping her in the tub, helped her get dressed since she always ended up getting her shirt on the wrong way around and helped her clean her teeth. There were only a few boundaries between the two girls but those that existed were never broken, one such rule was that Chloe would allow Max in the bathroom but would have the shower curtain closed. Chloe didn't mind sharing her whole life with the brunette but thought she'd and Max should have at least a few rules, most of which were common sense rules like wearing pajamas in bed, a rule of decency as well as a rule of safety. The two girls had spent almost every night of their lives in the same bed and while Chloe knew homosexuality existed from the hate-filled tirades the children in the orphanage were often treated to, she hadn't thought of herself that way, convinced she was more ace than gay, that was until she met Rachel Amber at which point she realized her sexuality, she was gay for the blonde beauty and for her cute best friend to boot! Chloe had already established the rules but it was even more important that they were obeyed, the last thing she wanted was Max to endure a 'sinner’s exorcism'. Such a thing terrified her more than it ever had as a kid, she had seen first hand what one of those things involved and had Max had to endure that she would probably slaughter everyone in the orphanage in her rage then kill herself out of shame for letting Max endure what was basically torture

Chloe led Max to the perfect place for their photoshoot, happily watching the little brunette snap away happily though there were no selfies taken, her hair hidden under a beanie to conceal it from prying eyes. She only revealed her hair in all its colored glory once they had arrived at the place for their photoshoot, somewhere she had picked out specifically for that purpose. “Maxi” Chloe cooed, waving the younger girl over. “Let's get some snaps!”  
Max had nodded eagerly and immediately turned into the girl Chloe hoped she would one day become, brave and self-assured enough to order the older punk around.

For a whole half hour, the younger girl snapped away excitedly, taking shots of both girls in character on a memory card that Chloe had specifically picked up for the shoot. _I wish we could keep some of these pics_ the girl had morosely grumbled to herself, _oh well I'll make sure I make it up to the little hipster_ the girl vowed. All too soon it was time for Chloe and Max to go back to the motel room. Once safely in the motel room and once Max had been changed out of her clothes into her pajamas, Max went to use the toilet and Chloe slipped the SD card out of the camera, making sure to return the camera to where she has picked it up from. “Now, Maxi, I'm going to have to go out tonight, don't worry I'll be back by the time you wake up. Watch that Final Fantasy” _garbage_ “movie that you love so much” the older girl pulled out a DVD case, presenting it with a flourish for the younger girl, taking joy in how the younger girl's eyes widened and how she clapped her hands in excitement, the girl hadn't ever owned the DVD for her favorite movie before. Chuckling, Chloe inserted the DVD knowing full well that the movie would likely be watched on repeat until she had seen it once through or Max fell asleep, whichever happened first. A knock on the door later upon which Chloe had hastily hidden her hair, Chloe was satisfied Max would be happy and well fed. The girl had two milky beverages and two medium pizzas to nom on after all, not to mention a faucet with an unlimited supply of water. “Max??” Chloe called  
“Mmm?” Max hummed back, pausing the movie. She had been pretty quick at picking up how the TV and DVD worked  
“Don't forget; stay in the room, don't answer the door and be happy, I'll be back soon, I promise”  
“Love, Chlobear” Max called  
“I love you too, Maxi” Chloe called back, shutting the door behind her and locking it as the sounds of Max's movie starting up again. She had taken both keys with her for peace of mind and hung up the 'do not disturb’ sign. _Please be safe my sweetest little hipster. I'll see you tomorrow_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh oh, what is Chloe up to?? Stay tuned to find out!!
> 
> Theories, reviews, pointers about spelling and grammar are always welcome


	23. Families

Day 108

“Mmph, Chlobear?” Max groggily opened her eyes, sleep gunk still sticking them closed. To her horror she didn't feel the reassuring warmth coming from around her, the older girl would always be the big spoon and the innocent girl had a habit of panicking if she woke without Chloe's reassuring warmth. “Chlobear??” she called to no answer. _Where is she?!_ Max turned in the bed and saw the menu of the DVD she had fallen asleep while watching, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. Remembering Chloe had left her alone in the room, she groaned and started searching for the remote blearily. She had no idea what the time was though from the look of the nice warm glow outside the window it was sometime just after sunrise. Fumbling around for the remote her hand instead found a wet cold something and she sat up fast. She quickly identified what the object was, what was left of the second medium cheese and tomato pizza Chloe had left for her the night before. Sighing, Max wiped her hand on the blankets on the bed and lifted the pizza box to find the elusive remote. _There you are_. Hitting play once again, Max settled into the bed, tucked into her pizza and focused on the beginning of the movie she loved so much.

Toward the end of the movie, the lock clicked open. Max scurried under the bed where she hid. “Maxi? Maxi? You in the bathroom?” It was Chloe  
“Chlobear!!” Max cried, letting out her breath in one gigantic cry, she rolled out from under the bed and ran to her best friend in the whole wide world  
“Hey you, my silly Maxi” the blunette cooed happily, pulling the eager brunette into a massive hug.  
“Do. Not. Go. Again!!” Max punctuated each word with a blow to Chloe's arm and had a massive pout stuck firmly on her face  
“Hey, hey, Maxi” Chloe whispered, attempting to soothe the distraught girl. Chloe was shrugging off the blows with ease, Max wasn't that strong and to Chloe, it felt more like a series of taps than punches. “Maxi, I love you”  
“Love” Max reached out and squeezed Chloe's hand from where both girls were entangled in each others’ arms. The older girl was settling down on the bed with Max with a small smile, she had missed well over half of the movie and was more than happy to watch the rest with her best friend, her little sister.

Once the movie had finished, Chloe stood and pulled Max into a massive hug. “Come on, Maxi, we ought to go do your hair, again” Max tilted her head but, trusting Chloe completely, she allowed the blunette to carry her to the bathroom again to sort out her hair. Max didn't really understand what was going on, why Chloe kept changing her hair colors. Chloe had changed her hair to black once they had arrived in LA, then changed it back to her natural brunette for their photoshoot and now Chloe wanted to change it yet again. Max, hating having her hair done was starting to get a little fussy, she had had her hair washed several times in the past few days and was getting rather fed up.  
“Chlobear!” Max groaned out the nickname. Expressing complex feelings and emotions with a single word or occasionally a phrase was Max's skill.  
“I'm sorry, Max. I... we had to do that to help Rachel”  
_Help Rachel??_ “Chlobear?” Max was expressing confusion with her single word. She didn’t understand how Chloe could help Rachel when Rachel was far away and in jail.  
“Don't worry about it, Maxi” Chloe soothed, pulling her fingers through the smaller girl’s hair. Max nuzzled Chloe and allowed her to carry her into the bathroom and drop her into the tub. Chloe quickly set to work getting rid of the dye in the girl’s hair and subsequently redyed it to black. While Max was sitting waiting for the dye to be absorbed into her hair, Chloe worked on her own hair, stripping the color from it once again and also redyeing her own hair black.

*****

Day 131

“Girls?” a warm and loving male voice called through a bare house in Portland. It was easily apparent that the occupants had only recently moved into the house  
“Yes, dad?” a young girl’s voice called  
“Lynn, where's your sister?” The male entered the living room where Lynn was sat at a table drawing some picture she had been working on for a few hours  
“In her room, dad”  
“Jessica??” the man, Richard Marsh called up the stairs.  
“Yea, dad?” another young girl’s voice called from upstairs  
“I know you're still upset that we moved out but we had to, I _had_ to protect you and your sister. Would you please come down here, it's important”  
“Okay... I'm coming”

A few moments later Jessica poked her head around the door and smiled cautiously. “Ah, Jessica, please come join us” Jessica nodded and perched herself on the edge of the couch. “Girls, I'm so so sorry” Richard began. “I'm sorry we had to leave Arcadia, I'm sorry. I just couldn't support your mother's hateful rhetoric which was just getting worse and worse.” The entire family had been treated to Charity Marsh's hateful speeches every Sunday dinner, speeches about gay people, speeches about people of color and speeches about harlots, jezebels and _sinners_ that didn't believe in her god. “But that's not the reason I called you down here”  
Both girls looked up in concern, Lynn took her younger sister Jessica into her arms. “The reason I called you down is I want to talk to you about a new family member. Lynn, I've told you about your new sister, haven't I?”  
“Dad applied to ad-opt an older girl” Lynn provided.  
“Yes, her name is Kate. Her social worker will be bringing her here later today, I'm sorry to spring this on you both like this but I only received the confirmation earlier today.”  
“Dad, you should have told Jessica before” Lynn scolded reproachfully. She had wrapped her anxious sister up in her arms, anxiety that Richard firmly placed the blame for on his wife, Janice. The woman expected a lot from her girls yet only really paid attention to Lynn  
“I didn't want her to worry about this on top of everything else” Richard replied, his heart was in the right place at least  
“Dad” Lynn frowned at him  
“I know I'm sorry”  
“Well she'll be here soon” Lynn shrugged. There was very little she could do at that late stage and while she didn't want to deny the new girl a chance to have a loving family at long last, she also realized she had to protect her younger sister

It was in fact almost three hours later when a car pulled up outside the house and a tall brunette woman stepped through the door. “Good evening, Mr. Marsh”  
“Evening, Kris” he replied, “these are my daughters, Lynn and Jessica”  
“Nice to meet you, this is Kate” The petite blonde girl stood behind the social worker, clearly anxious and shy. “Say hi to your new family, Kate”  
“H-hey” Kate smiled at both girls and her new father  
“Good evening, Kate. We've been waiting to meet you. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to get dinner” with that, Richard left the room with the social worker, leaving the three girls to get to know each other.

“H-hey, you're J-Jessica, right?” Kate moved to the younger of the two Marsh girls.  
The smaller girl who couldn't be much more than four nodded and squeaked out a ‘yes!’ as Kate kneeled in front of her with a delicate smile that could warm even the coldest of hearts. The other girl was slightly older at six and she pouted slightly.  
“And you must be Lynn!” Kate turned to the older of the two girls and flashed her a brilliant smile. Both the younger girls were immediately entranced by the smile.  
“Yes, I'm Lynn, your new sister”  
Kate covered her mouth, the words meant a lot to the blonde. _They're so... accepting, even of what I am!_  
Both Lynn and Jessica moved in to hug the older girl. “It's okay, Kate,” Lynn whispered while Kate sobbed

“Girls, dinner!!” Richard Marsh called up the stairs and the girls charged downstairs to eat the delicious food that their father had cooked up for them, the social worker joined them for the meal and kept all three of the girls, as well as Richard, engaged in the conversation

*****

Day 174

Rachel woke up early on the Wednesday she had been dreading, the Wednesday her life was about to go to shit, her first day in court, most likely one of many appearances she would have to make. Accused of two counts of kidnapping, two counts of murder, a count of aggravated assault and a count of felony trespassing, Rachel had been dreading the day upon which what was left of her life would fall apart. She knew that she had fucked up but what was done was done and there was nothing she would do to change that, Max and Chloe were safe and free from the oppressive orphanage and its abusive staff. Despite feeling pretty confident that she would spend the rest of her life in a small cell, as not even her father could save her, she only had one regret, handing herself in when she could have possibly gotten away with it all. Rachel was stood in her room, staring blankly at the wall when her father entered. “Rachel Dawn Amber!!” he snapped, pulling Rachel back to reality, the man no longer used his gentle fatherly tone with his daughter, she was a massive disappointment to him. “Are you ready to go?” The teen was staring down at a photograph she had received in the mail, a photograph that she would happily admit to meaning the world to her. “What's that you have there, Rachel?”  
“Nothing, dad, just a photo” Rachel moved to conceal the photograph under her leg but was too slow. “That's a nice photograph, did you take this?”  
“Y-yea...” Rachel frowned, “before I was arrested”  
James nodded, “Time to go” he gestured toward the door and Rachel reluctantly slipped the photograph into her pillow before standing and following her father out to his car

The drive to Arcadia Bay Courthouse went by in silence. When they arrived, Rachel noticed two cars she recognized and a third she wished she didn't. “Jefferson is here?” she asked, “I thought Prescott would be the one to destroy my life. He takes pleasure in doing things like that after all”  
“You destroyed your own life by kidnapping those girls” he replied firmly.  
Rachel bit back a snarky reply. “I was doing what I thought was best at the time” she ended up replying  
“You were a fool, Rachel”

Rachel entered the courthouse, she looked around nervously for the faces she knew she would see. Her anklet was hidden by purposely loose pants as she was still pretty embarrassed by the thing as it was a mark of her failure and not to mention her stupidity. “Rachel Dawn Amber” she spoke to the clerk who nodded,  
“You’re going to be in courtroom number one, and good morning, Mr. Amber” Rachel blushed in embarrassment once again at the realization that most of the people would recognize her father since he was the district attorney. Rachel went to stand off to one side where she was joined by Steph.  
“Hey, Rachel”  
“Steph, you shouldn't have come” Rachel replied, she had seen the auburn-haired girl's car in the parking lot but was still surprised to see her there  
“I wanted to come and wish you the best of luck”  
“Rachel wouldn't need luck had she not kidnapped two kids” James snapped, both girls just about managed to hold back their withering glares at the man's words, they couldn't risk revealing that Steph knew most of what was going on  
“Dad, could you _please_ give me some space!!” Rachel hissed at him, and Rachel never hissed at her father, no matter how much of an asshole he was being. He nodded and moved away to the other side of the waiting area. He accepted that his daughter needed some space considering how close Rachel was to beginning her jail sentence  
“No news?” Rachel whispered and Steph shook her head. “I got a photograph from them”  
Steph’s eyes widened. “ _What?!_ ” she whispered back urgently  
“I don't understand it” Rachel replied with a shrug. “None of it made any sense, I told Chloe not to write me and she gave away her location in the letter!!”  
“Oh no,” Steph sighed, “what did the letter say?”  
“It said that the city they were in lived up to our gay dreams”  
“Fuck. So not only have they given their location away, Chloe also came out? That's bad news...”

“Ms. Rachel Dawn Amber?” a voice called, interrupting the conversation. Rachel gulped, it was time for her trial to begin

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay, finally, Kate's here!!


	24. Betrayed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now, I'm not a lawyer and haven't been in a courtroom in my entire life so excuse any errors I may have made here but... Without further ado here's the next chapter

Day 174

Steph groaned and nodded, moving away from Rachel and back toward the observation area where Victoria had already snagged them a pair of seats while Steph spoke to Rachel. As concerned as the pixie blonde was by the blonde thespian's court date, she had to maintain a slightly distant, cool attitude, her reputation demanded it. Despite her Queen Bee reputation Victoria smiled a private smile at Steph as she approached. “How is she?” the pixie blonde whispered  
“Nervous as hell” the beanie-wearing girl replied. “She's going to go to jail isn't she?”  
Victoria's expression softened, “I don't know for sure, Steph. We never were going to til the trial began” she hoped that but the tone of her voice said something different entirely, one word; _probably_.

“All rise” a baritone voice interrupted.  
_Shit_ Victoria gulped and turned her attention to the courtroom below her, as did Steph  
The defense and prosecution were quickly sworn in and the Deputy District Attorney began his speech about Rachel's crimes. “On Monday, December second, 2013, the defendant, Rachel Dawn Amber was arrested in Portland and subsequently charged with a number of crimes, two counts of kidnapping in the second degree, the victims being Chloe and Maxine Prescott, two counts of manslaughter against the very same victims,” The judge had dismissed the original accusation of murder as there was no evidence that Rachel had taken the girls to intentionally kill them, “a count of aggravated assault against Mr. Mark Jefferson and a count of felony trespassing on the grounds of the Saint Annabeth's Children’s Home where Mr. Jefferson works and where the two Prescott children lived before they were kidnapped. All the crimes took place on Thursday, November twenty-eighth. Evidence gathered in the form of statements and roll-calls confirmed that Max was in the orphanage before eight in the morning but by one in the afternoon she was gone and was nowhere to be found in the building. Further evidence was found at the hotel where the defendant was staying in the form of Maxine Prescott's Polaroid camera, some photographs and the remains of some files that had been taken from the orphanage.”  
Rachel's lawyer stood next and gave his own speech. “I would like to remind the judge and jury that there are no records of my client’s motivations and that any evidence shown is at most circumstantial. Maxine and Chloe were individuals, perfectly able to decide for themselves if they wanted to tag along with Rachel. My client is innocent until proven guilty”

The first witness was called, Victoria and Steph both shot the man a withering glare as Mark Jefferson took his place at the stand. Sworn in, the act causing both young women to scoff quietly at the idea of Jefferson telling them the truth about why Rachel had rescued the girls, not to mention Nathan who hadn't even been mentioned. _It seems Rach was right about them not wanting Nathan's name mentioned,_ Victoria rolled her eyes, _oh well if it all goes tits up I’m sure it'll make an interesting spectacle when Rachel mentions him_ the pixie blonde reasoned. She hoped it wouldn't come to that even though she would enjoy watching Prescott and Jefferson destroy their own cases  
“Mark Jefferson, J-e-f-f-e-r-s-o-n.” The sick twisted man began in his false, sweet tone. “I was sat in my office talking with Max about... Uh, Maxine. Sorry, force of habit.” The judge waved away his apology, “I was speaking to Maxine regarding what Chloe was doing that lunchtime, whether she knew if Chloe would come back to the orphanage for lunch or if she was staying with Amber” he shot the blonde a venomous glare, “on campus. I received word from one of the other people working at the orphanage that Chloe wasn't in class at Blackwell where she went to college”  
“Most of the kids were homeschooled, educated on site, is that correct?” the prosecutor asked  
“That is correct” Jefferson confirmed  
“Why was Chloe any different?”  
“She was, for a lack of a better word, a genius. I was the one to persuade Mr. Prescott to send her to Blackwell so she would have a graduation certificate that would allow her to maybe go to college if she wanted”  
Steph couldn't help but scoff again, _all you and Prescott were interested in was using Chloe to improve your own reputations!_  
“Chloe disappeared that day and in the middle of my conversation with Max the poor girl screamed,” even from above in the observational area Steph witnessed Rachel's wince. “I turned around, startled and wondering what had upset the girl so much so I ran over to the door thinking that there was some gun-toting criminal just outside the door and I was right. Rachel Amber was outside the door, she had snuck in and was spying on the conversation and she had a gun!!”  
“Objection! Speculation! There wasn’t ever any evidence of a gun uncovered” the defense lawyer cried  
“Sustained. Please keep unconfirmed information to a minimum, your official statement said nothing about a gun”  
_Gotcha!!_ Steph shared a triumphant grin with Victoria despite how tense their fists were on the arm rests of their seats  
“Please continue” the judge instructed  
“Well, a struggle ensued where Amber kicked me in the face and knocked me unconscious. She took Max and fled the orphanage”  
“Do you have any medical reports to indicate that you were seen by any medical professional regarding the injuries you acquired on the twenty-eighth?”  
“Yes, your honor. I have medical reports and an invoice here” he handed them to the bailiff.

__

 

The judge spent a few moments looking over the documents. “It says here you weren't seen until the twenty-ninth for a concussion and broken nose from being hit in the face, why is that?”  
“I was out searching for Chloe and Maxine” he replied  
“Right”  
“Does the defense have any further questions for this witness?” the judge turned to the lawyer who sat next to Rachel  
“No your honor”  
“These will be made available as exhibits A, B and C” the judge concluded, indicating the medical report, the invoice and the statement

Victoria turned to Steph, her face one of worry. “Did you see her flinch when Jefferson spoke about Max's scream?” Steph nodded. They both wondered if that was admissible evidence in a courtroom.  
_That wince probably is admissible evidence knowing our luck_. Steph thought to herself, her expression enough to convey the gist of what she was thinking so Victoria gripped her hand tightly

The second witness, some other employee at the orphanage, confirmed her name, address, place of employment and so on then confirmed aspects of Jefferson's story, that she had contacted Blackwell and discovered that Chloe hadn't been in any of her lessons. She also added that she had been the one to discover some of the paperwork was missing from the orphanage regarding the two girls who had been kidnapped, having provided the roll calls from the orphanage to prove that both girls were there in the morning before Chloe went off to Blackwell but that Max wasn't there during the day and that neither Max nor Chloe had gotten back by the evening, along with her written statement that had also been retrieved from Arcadia Bay Police Department as further evidence

The third witness was one of Rachel and Chloe's teachers who had confirmed that neither girls were in his class that day. He offered up the roll call from his class, proving that neither Rachel nor Chloe were in that class. The roll call was entered as evidence, becoming exhibit H along with his own statement

The fourth witness was a man that both the young women in the observation area hated with a passion, David Madsen, Blackwell’s head of security and someone who was believed to be in cahoots with Jefferson and Prescott. He confirmed that he had been called about a non-student in the dorms, while not a problem in of itself, the girl matched the description of Max who Madsen had heard was missing. “So I received this phone call from one of the students about a non-student being taken into Rachel Amber’s room. It was getting close to curfew and this student was concerned, she hadn't ever seen this child before, a child that was at least a few years younger than Rachel. So, I headed over to see what was going on. By the time I got there though, the girls were gone. Chloe's jacket was still in Rachel's room and a few Polaroid photographs were on the floor near the bed. My security team reported that an unknown truck tore out of the parking lot with what looked to be the three girls in it. Chloe's blue hair would've been instantly recognizable and the other two resembled Rachel and Max at a quick glance” David concluded his statement and was excused. The man moved over and grabbed the aforementioned items, three Polaroid photographs and one leather jacket that forensics had confirmed to belong to Chloe Prescott via her DNA that was already on record since she had the occasional appearance in the police station, accused of some minor crimes that she always seemed to get off on some technicality. There were now ten pieces of physical evidence on record, ten pieces of evidence that supported the prosecution, as well as four statements from four witnesses. All the evidence and statements supported the accusations against Rachel

The judge called a quick recess, Rachel moved out of the courtroom and to Steph, who knew her well, she looked quite shaken. “Holy shit, this isn't good” Steph mumbled, moving over to see Rachel while the court wasn’t in session  
Rachel saw her approach and slumped in on herself while shaking slightly. “Steph... I'm sorry”  
“Why are you sorry?”  
“I'm just sorry. I'm sorry I handed myself in when I did, I'm sorry I had to get you involved” The girl was acting quite frantic and on the verge of tears but fortunately for the time being they were quite alone  
Victoria moved over to join the two girls, “Rachel, everything's gonna be okay, you just gotta keep this up, Kay? You're doing great”  
“I'm going to go to _jail_ , Victoria” Rachel replied and slumped into the embrace of two caring friends where she remained for the remainder of the recess

Ten minutes later, Rachel was back in the courtroom and waiting to see what was going to happen next. Would the prosecution bring it more witnesses or would it be her defense team’s turn, a defense team who had remained worryingly quiet?  
“I’d like to call the fifth witness to the stand, the arresting and investigating officer from Portland. Officer Thompson?”  
“Yes, your honor. Well... I was stood outside a children's hospital in Portland having just finished up with talking to a victim in a child abuse case. The hospital in question, Doernbecher Children's Hospital has a special program for victims of abuse” the police officer provided. “I was taking a quick break and smoking a cigarette before returning to the police station to find out about that kid’s family when Rachel Amber of all people stepped out of the hospital right in front of me. I immediately arrested her and took her into custody, whereupon a search of her person, I found keys to the truck that was seen leaving Blackwell as well as keys to a hotel room where Rachel claimed that the girls were staying. While I didn't find the girls in that hotel room, I did find a number of Polaroid photographs, ten I think. I also found a Polaroid camera, some underwear that belonged to each of the three girls, tees that the girls must have been using as night shirts since there was only a single king-sized bed in the room, some half burned documents, official Orphanage records for Maxine and Chloe Prescott and blue hair in the shower room” the officer completed his statement and went off with a nod.  
“The officer’s evidence will be made available to the jury from the Arcadia Bay Police Department” the judge concluded. It did not look good for Rachel

A few moments of deliberation passed before the judge turned to face Rachel. “Ms. Amber, where are the girls now?”  
“I...” Rachel began before her lawyer spoke briefly to her in an undertone, both Victoria and Steph knew how she was going to answer that question. The way her gaze was direct, confident and aimed at Prescott, directly in his eyes it was going to be a resounding 'no I do not know'. Suddenly, her shoulders slumped, her eyes welled up with tears and she looked down at the ground off to one side. In that moment, Rachel Amber became merely an echo, a specter of her former self, completely and utterly defeated, giving up.  
_Oh shit... She's not going to... Is she??_ Victoria and Steph shared a worried, panicked glance before...  
“Max and Chloe are in...” Both Steph and Victoria covered their ears, not wanting to witness the moment that their friend betrayed the two girls who had trusted her with their lives. The onslaught of texts to both Steph and Victoria’s phones indicated that the girls back at Blackwell were in a panic. Remembering that the proceedings were being televized in Arcadia Bay both girls covered their mouths with the shock of what had happened. Rachel had sacrificed the two girls presumably on the off chance that she was going to get a lighter sentence for doing so. Soon, nothing was left of Steph and Victoria's presence at the court save two slightly warm seats.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh... Oh dear:(


	25. Cornered

Day 174

Chloe sat in the motel room with Max as the case unfolded on the TV screen in front of them. Max had been lulled to sleep by the warmth she was surrounded by, the blanket fort providing an enclosed space that furthered the cozy environment created by all the blankets that Max was wrapped up in with Chloe by her side. Chloe, unlike Max, had her eyes locked to the screen, rapt attention being given to the TV that was displaying her friend’s fate. On the corner of the screen, Chloe thought she saw two girls leave the observation area just after Rachel declared where the girls were. A small smirk appeared on her face at the triumphant expression on Sean Prescott’s face. _Come and get me you son of a bitch, I won't let you hurt Rachel or Max anymore_. On the screen, the judge called a new witness to the stand as Chloe blew a strand of her hair out of her eyes.

*****

“Please state your name for the record?” the prosecutor asked of the new witness  
“James Amber” the man replied promptly. “I'm Rachel's father”  
_And a fucking traitor by the looks of things..._ the blonde defendant thought to herself angrily, despite the overwhelming sense of numbness there was still a spark of fury in her. _I can't believe that you're giving evidence against me, your own daughter! Shoulda just let Damon have his way with you. Fucker_  
“And what evidence do you have to present, Mr. Amber?”  
“A photograph” he gestured and someone on the sidelines brought the photograph to the judge.  
“I see... Describe how you came to have this photograph”  
“Well,” Mr. Amber began, “it was just another day at the office, the DA's office has been kept rather busy with the usual caseload. A few DUI cases, an accusation of corruption against a businessman, a drug dealer caught in the midst of restocking, that missing person's case regarding another drug dealer and the case upon which we’re focusing on today. I had arrived early that day and I found a package waiting for me, this photograph was in it.”

“Do you recognize this photograph, Ms. Amber?” The prosecutor asked, looking Rachel directly in the eye, revealing the photograph to Rachel.  
“Y-yes” she stuttered, her eyes widening in horror at the sight of the very same photograph her father had seen earlier that morning. “I received that photograph a few weeks ago” Rachel gazed at her father with a disbelieving look. _Dad, why??_ Her anger against the man had spluttered into nonexistence at the revelation of the photograph, her numbness was now absolute  
“And you didn't report it to the court, why?” The prosecutor glared at Rachel as he spoke  
“I...” _I didn't want you fuckers to find them but it looks like it's been taken out of my hands_. “I don't know”  
“You do realize we can add another charge to your growing list of crimes for obstructing?”  
_Screw you_. “You've already decided I'm guilty so get it over and done with” Rachel snapped back  
“Mr. Amber, describe the photograph to the courtroom” the judge interrupted the verbal battle between the prosecutor and Rachel  
“Very well, your honor. It’s a photograph of both Ms. Chloe Prescott and Ms. Maxine Prescott. They're stood on a street somewhere in the city” Mr. Amber stated emotionlessly  
_For someone who's fucking over his only daughter, you're certainly acting nonchalant_  
“You recognize the girls, Mr. Amber?”  
“Yes. Ms. Price's blue hair stands out somewhat”  
“Indeed it does.” The prosecutor acknowledged. Turning to the judge he continued, “I hope this process has proven without any doubt that Ms. Amber is guilty of all the crimes that she has been accused of. Save the manslaughter charges, of course, the photograph proves both girls are still alive. I have one last question for the defendant. What do the words ' _The city truly lives up to our gay dreams_ ’ mean?”  
“It's... It's Chloe proving that it is her, the... The city was always one of the places we hoped to visit one day”

“Is Chloe Prescott gay!?” an angry voice roared from the back of the courtroom. Sean Prescott was on his feet and in an apocalyptic rage. Rounding on Jefferson he gave the other man a look that had Jefferson gulping  
“Sir. Quiet your voice this is a courtroom, not one of your sermons” The judge spoke firmly, quickly shutting Prescott up

*****

Meanwhile, in the Prescott dorms, there was almost a full-blown panic. The girls who had settled down to watch Rachel in court had been shocked, nay horrified when Rachel spoke the words that had given away Max and Chloe’s city. Brooke had gasped and clung on to Warren, Dana and Juliet went into a fury fueled tirade against the Prescotts, Alyssa and Stella just stared at the screen in horror and Drew and Mikey both scowled at Rachel who was being shown on TV, she had a white face and was shaking subtly. “We gotta move!!” Dana exclaimed over everyone else there, breaking through the noise and the chorus of tapping of phone screens. “We gotta get there before Prescott's men do!!”  
“What about Steph and Victoria?” Brooke inquired quietly  
“They'll catch up. Leave them a note”  
Justin and Trevor burst in through the door. “Did you hear the news?!” they both exclaimed. They had been chilling outside with their skateboards when they heard the news on the radio the pair had borrowed from Brooke  
“Sure, we’re moving out” Juliet replied quickly, wiping her eyes  
“Okay”

With that decided all the students rushed off to get prepared for their journey, each getting a duffel bag of clothes. They were prepared to go and tear the city apart if they have to. A record ten minutes later they were all in the parking lot and jumping into cars. Dana, Juliet, Stella and Alyssa were in one car, Drew, Mikey, Steph, Trevor and Justin in a second and Brooke and Warren brought up the rear.  
“Come on you lot!!” Juliet yelled at the others out the open window

*****

“Victoria, pull over”  
“Steph?”  
“Pull over. I've just realized something!”  
Suppressing an exasperated sigh, Victoria pulled over and turned to face Steph with an expectant yet incredulous look on her face. “What is it, Stephanie?”  
“I've worked it out!! I know what’s going on!!”  
“What is going on?” Victoria continued staring at Steph incredulously

*****

Rachel sat despondently in her room. She had been forced to betray her closest friend in more way than one. “I _hate_ this... Chloe, Max, forgive me” A tear ran down her cheek, she believed, truly believed that she had destroyed her friends' lives

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was working on the next chapter of this but I don't think I'll bother considering.
> 
> Thanks for reading:)


	26. Truth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaaaand I'm back!! Turns out it's very difficult for me to stop writing even if my confidence has taken a blow or two. More of that soon, after the new chapter of Saint Annabeth's!

Day 174

“Vic!! Max and Chloe are safe!!” Steph cried loudly, tears streaming down her face in at the sheer relief she felt in that moment.  
“Uh...” for once the Queen Bee was silent, stunned into speechlessness by what her new friend had said. Victoria and Steph may not have been friends before the thing with Rachel, Max and Chloe but they had undeniably formed an unbreakable bond during the hours they had spent pouring over records, maps and webpages during their searches for the missing girls, their families, and boy. Neither had forgotten about Nathan but as it was he was presumably safe with CPS or some foster family somewhere in Oregon while Max and Chloe remained in danger, therefore, their priority had to be the girls. They had researched everything they could with the resources they had available to them, from historical records of Arcadia Bay through to Oregon laws. “Steph. Explain!” Victoria snapped. Victoria hadn't yet reached her twenty-first birthday so the vast majority of the riches of her parents were still just beyond her grasp  
“Don’t you get it?” Steph asked Victoria quickly, a concerned smile crossing her lips “Chloe's a genius, right”  
_As much as it pains me to say it, to agree with her... Amber was certainly correct on that_. Victoria didn't voice her thoughts instead opting for a nod, the pixie blonde was still pissed with the other blonde for what she appeared to have done. After all that time of trying to protect the two innocent children, she had seemingly turned her back on them  
“So... Chloe has Max with her, right?” All Victoria could do was nod again. “And there's no way Chloe would put Max in danger. If it was just her, she probably wouldn't have hesitated to sell herself out to save Rachel. The blunette is just like that, isn't she?” Steph’s tone was absolutely resolute and Victoria had a hard time disbelieving the nerd's words, even if the former was gazing out the car window at the distant lighthouse  
“So, what are you saying?” Victoria asked, she wanted to believe Steph but Victoria had always been a skeptic  
“What I'm saying is that the photograph... It was a trap” Steph turned back to Victoria, a wide grin on her face  
Those words grabbed Victoria's attention. _A trap?_ She hadn't even considered that possibility but as she started to consider it, it made sense  
“Now, a stunning photographer like you must've been able to see the inconsistencies in the photo, right?” The Auburn-haired woman raised an eyebrow  
“I never saw the photograph” Victoria replied glumly, _not close up enough to make such judgments at least_  
“Well, fortunately...” Steph trailed off

The auburn-haired woman pulled out a copy of the photograph that Brooke had snagged a photo of while everyone was watching the court case, she had emailed it to Steph as soon as she had acquired it. The girl had taken a gamble, flying her drone to Rachel's house and in through her open window, knowing that Rachel wasn't there, nor would Rachel's entourage of federal agents be there since she was in court. “I had our resident drone pilot get this, well actually it was completely her idea. She feigned needing a bathroom break to grab this for us the moment she knew Rachel had a copy in her room” Steph explained quickly, “Rachel didn't hide it as well as she should have, it fell out of her pillow when she presumably slammed the door”  
Victoria snatched the tablet out of Steph's hands. “Let me see!!” The pixie blonde went straight into her photographer mode and critiqued the photograph. “Hm. It lacks all sense of location” was the first thing that Victoria had noticed and she spoke it aloud without hesitation. “It’s angled in such a way that neither the sky nor the ground is visible, only this blank stretch of wall that could literally be anywhere in the world!”  
“Go on...” Steph prompted  
“So basically Chloe set this shot up so that it wouldn’t give off any clues about their whereabouts” Victoria surmised. “Which can only mean one thing, they're playing a part. Since Chloe is so smart she must've realized that her blue hair would be a beacon, for us and anyone else searching for her! I was shocked to hear about her with her blue hair in that photograph, I was expecting her to have at least dyed it!!” Victoria couldn't stop a small frown crossing her face at the thought of Chloe being so _stupid_  
“You're getting closer to the objective!” Steph encouraged  
“Since this is all so carefully planned, I would have to conclude that this wasn’t taken wherever they said it was taken, San Fran, right?” it was Victoria's turn to turn back to Steph  
“Right.”  
“But if Max and Chloe aren't there, then where the fuck would they be?!?” Victoria spat. _It's all well and good knowing they're not actually in San Fran... But we need to get to them before Prescott does and not knowing where they are isn't a good start_  
“The clue that made me realize was in what Chloe had written on the photograph. 'The city truly lives up to our gay dreams’.” Steph whispered excitedly yet cautiously as if sharing a forbidden secret which, in a way, she was.  
“They dreamed of going to San Fran, a LGBT haven, so what?” Victoria did not like beating around the bush at the best of times and, under the circumstances, it was really starting to piss her off  
“Wrong!!” Steph cried triumphantly. “Rachel dreamed of going to a different city, not San Fran.” She quickly elaborated, not eager to be on the receiving end of the wrath of a pissed off Queen Bee  
“Really?” Victoria simply gaped  
“Really really. Rachel isn't so bad, Vic. If only you had given her the chance.” Steph moved to playfully punch the older girl’s arm, she thought it was about time Victoria layed the rivalry she had with the other blonde to rest  
“Fuck that shit” Victoria grumped but with very little malice behind it  
“Vic...” Steph grumbled  
“Sorry”  
“Anyway, Rachel always dreamed of going to LA, not San Fran” Steph finally dropped the bombshell  
“Are you sure?” Victoria asked, her face serious in a 'if you're lying to me they'll never find the body’ expression  
“Absolutely” Steph nodded forcefully

Victoria took some time to absorb the news. Eventually, she turned back to Steph, “We can't tell anyone”  
“B-but” Steph stuttered, she knew what was awaiting Rachel if the news that she did not betray the girls was kept quiet  
“Trust me on this, Steph. We cannot tell anyone, not a single soul. If Chloe's ruse is discovered then we'll be opening ourselves up for all kinds of legal trouble and, if we're arrested who will be able to look for the girls? Rachel only trusted one person with the information about their possible whereabouts, you. You're the only person who knew the three possible cities, not even I knew them and still don't know the third”  
“It was Seattle” Steph quickly interjected  
“Huh?” Victoria had been caught off guard by the sudden statement  
“The third city, it was Seattle” Steph elaborated quickly, watching how all the tension that had been in the pixie blonde’s body left it and she relaxed despite the fact that Victoria was driving  
“Ah, okay” an easygoing smile had replaced all the tension and it was almost as if the girl was a different person entirely

Victoria drove her car out onto the interstate, they would head to San Francisco to meet up with everyone then they intended to leave in the dead of night to head to Los Angeles and, hopefully, Max and Chloe. They knew they had a marathon drive ahead of them but they felt compelled to complete it. They were, after all the only ones who knew about Max and Chloe's actual location, therefore, they were their only chance

Day 175

Victoria and Steph spent the long hours on their way to Los Angeles talking about everything and anything, from fashion to nerdy tabletop games. The young women, having switched their phones off when they left San Francisco at three in the morning, hadn't yet been pestered by a single phone call. Victoria had, on the way to the city, purchased a used car so they could make a clean getaway from San Francisco without being traced to their destination by their friends, or worse, by Prescott. They had taken four-hour shifts each, driving for four then switching though both were too wired to sleep. They had driven to San Francisco the day before and had arrived at eleven PM and were up at two in order to leave an hour later. Dosed up on an incredible amount of coffee, both girls arrived in LA by noon and retired to their motel room, trying to keep costs to a minimum so they could cover up the fact they had abandoned the search where the girls were supposed to be

“Well, this is it, _home_ for the next few months, before graduation” Victoria mocked  
“Fuck that shit...” Steph grumbled. She knew that both she and Victoria would soon be dipping into their savings accounts to achieve the rescue mission they had set out upon. That wasn't so bad for Victoria who, when she reached twenty-one would have access to the literal billions of Derek and Mary Chase but, Steph's savings were all she had, save the weekly deposits from her absentee mother that she had been saving

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I owe an explanation as to why I abandoned this work. Simply put I found out people were trashing my fanfics. 
> 
> To those people. I don't mind constructive criticism, so long as it isn't used in such a way that'll put people off reading my fics. Let people decide for themselves whether to read a fanfic instead of influencing them not to! And I'd quite like to be aware of the fact that people are trashing my fics (I don't consider some of the comments made to be constructive criticism at all), not discover it accidentally months down the line! AO3 has a comment function for a reason, if you're gonna comment on it use that instead of writing about it elsewhere, or if you are, then at least link it so I can see it, huh?
> 
> I'd like to give special thanks to Claire, Renae and ThePunkScientist for kicking my ass into publishing this chapter and thank all the people who have left kind comments on these fics where I actually have a chance of seeing them. Even though I never stopped writing since, for me at least, it's very hard not to continue writing, it was still difficult to find the motivation to finish and publish this chapter.


	27. Despair

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick reminder that I'm not a lawyer, so apologies for any inaccuracies here!

Day 175

Victoria and Steph, along with everyone else had been in such a hurry to go and find Max and Chloe before Prescott could get to them that they hadn't hung around to see the conclusion of Rachel's trial, not that they were overly bothered by missing it. Rachel had betrayed them and worse still, betrayed the two girls she had sworn to protect by removing them from the orphanage. Since Rachel had given them the information they wanted, Sean Prescott had talked to his prosecution team that was made out of the best lawyers in the Pacific Northwest and encouraged them to suggest a lighter sentence than Rachel had been expecting. Rachel, as the defendant, was fully expecting to be found guilty even before all the evidence that had been presented against her, though she had been expecting to put up a fight at every stage to keep Prescott and his goons away from Max and Chloe. With that in mind, Rachel was fully expecting the twenty years she had been advised to expect plus however long they decided to add as a consequence of her 'obstruction' she had originally intended to carry on with, most likely a few years extra jail time. When the prosecutor dropped the bombshell that, as she had come clean about the girls' location she would be getting a significantly lighter sentence, she had looked over at Prescott in confusion however his face remained blank and uninterested despite sending out several people to make the relevant calls to get his men out there searching for Max and Chloe. “Do you accept the plea deal?” the judge had asked of Rachel and she took the paperwork from her prosecutor and started reading it though at the time she had merely been looking for the place to sign her name. _I've already fucked up in the worst possible way, this is my one chance to get to Max and Chloe before Prick-scott does. I hope they can last six years without me_

Day 178

Several days later and Rachel was in her room, rereading her copy of the plea deal while awaiting her parole officer to arrive to officially give her permission to leave her house now that all the paperwork resulting from her court appearance was sorted. She had realized early in the morning that she had barely been with it since she had been forced to reveal where Max and Chloe were, she didn't know if dissociation was common in such traumatic circumstances but if she was being totally frank with herself, she didn't give a fuck. The first thing she had done when she had regained lucidity was grab the plea deal paperwork from her trash to read it through again. _Seems like a standard plea deal to me_ Rachel thought, as the DA's daughter she had seen several plea deals, some generic examples, others not so much and therefore she had the rare opportunity to compare her plea deal to others. She had immediately noticed the no appeal statement and the additional 'no further challenges’ clauses, while one seemed standard enough, the latter didn't. _Must've been included to stop me talking about Nathan or the abuse_ was Rachel's reasoning. Rachel knew that the no further challenges clause could work to her advantage, it not only prevented her from talking about the other crimes that Prescott had committed, it also presumably meant that he wouldn't be able to come after her if, _no not if_ Rachel immediately scolded herself with a slap to the wrist, _stupid girl, you've gotta assume that Chloe the genius would see Prescott coming a million miles away!_ Properly self-chastised, Rachel turned her attention back to her plea deal. _No drugs or booze for the duration..._ Rachel had pouted the first time she had caught sight of that particular requirement and did so again despite or perhaps because she didn’t remember the first time, she wasn't bothered by not being allowed firearms, after having a gun pointed at her in the orphanage she never wanted to see a gun again. Under the circumstances she would sorely miss her vices, furthermore, she didn't fancy submitting to testing for substance use which was an inevitability since her parents knew about her substance usage and worse still, the potential of being ordered to rehab. Most worryingly in her opinion was the strict rule against leaving Tillamook county and definitely not Oregon, a rule that meant she would not be able to go and hunt for Max and Chloe since San Francisco was in California, not Oregon. She wasn't about to risk the girls further by absconding and while she could leave Tillamook with permission from the parole officer or court, she wouldn't be able to leave Oregon until her parole was over. “Six years parole, a thousand hours of community service, find full-time employment here in shitty Arcadia Bay,” _most likely once those hours of community service are over since I have to spend at least thirty hours a week doing that shit._ “Ugh!!” she slapped her forehead in frustration. “And almost certainly be a social pariah for the rest of my six years here in Arcadia Bay, without even a single joint to get me through it. From popular to hated in under a day, well done, Rachel and for what? Six years parole instead of twenty years behind bars?” She had already accepted that she had made a mistake and realized she had to live with the consequences of her actions, that didn't mean she liked it though, in fact she hated herself for how stupid she had been and despised herself for giving up the girls’ location

A knock on the door paused Rachel's self-hate fueled tirade against herself. “Yea?” she called out, quickly flinging her legs up on to her bed and under the blankets. Her hair was back to its pristine condition on account of the court appearance a few days beforehand but she had spent most of the past months in bed without really caring for herself though she hadn’t stopped showering as she had initially  
“Hey, Rachel” James Amber stood in the doorway, a concerned grown on his pudgy face  
“What do you want?” Rachel asked with a cool tone.  
“Rachel...” James began reproachfully  
“Why did you do it, dad?” Rachel's voice was low and quiet yet _pissed_.  
“Do what?”  
“Hand that photograph over!?” Rachel snapped  
“Oh. _Oh, Rachel..._ ” James looked away. He has only done what he had thought was best for his daughter under the circumstances having not realized that Rachel had also received a copy of the photograph and that he was playing right into the hands of someone he had only met a few times. That Chloe has planned it all out  
“Don't _oh Rachel_ me. You do know that you kinda threw me under the fucking bus, right!?” Rachel snapped again, glaring at her father who was no longer able to hold her gaze. He hadn't suspected that Rachel would object so strongly to him handing that photograph over to the police, he simply didn't realize that Chloe had planned it all out and that Rachel didn't have a clue about that plan  
“Rachel Dawn Amber!!” Rose Amber had appeared by Rachel's door and was giving the young adult a glare that would terrify anyone  
“No, mom! This _asshole_ basically ensured that I’d be getting convicted. I could've fought the entire... Entire thing! I could have kept them...” Rachel's eyes widened and she closed her mouth before the rest of her sentence could escape. _Safe, I could have kept them safe from Prescott you bastard_  
“What on earth are you talking about, Rachel?” Rose replied soothingly  
“You handed over that photograph of Chloe and Max...”  
“I'm sorry if I hurt you. Rachel, I am truly sorry if I hurt you by going behind your back but I only wanted what was best for you. You’ve graduated with a 4.0 GPA, I kept you in school until you graduated, Prescott owed me a decade old favor”  
“But I have a criminal record and the fact that I might have sent two of my friends to their deaths in San Fran on my conscience! I'm never going to go to college or achieve anything more meaningful than working in a 7-Eleven!!”  
“I'm sorry, Rachel. I wish you hadn't done this but it is what it is” with that, James left the room, shutting the door behind him.

Rachel waited a few moments and then removed the blankets from across her leg while wincing. “I deserve this” she muttered. She hoped that Chloe would be smart enough to get herself and Max out of the situation that she had landed them both in. Soon, the towel she had placed around her leg was slowly being stained crimson.

*****

Meanwhile, Chloe, who had just heard a newsflash regarding her and Max's 'kidnapping’ on the radio she had picked up off a trash pile and fixed, started roaring with laughter. She had done it, she had helped ensure Rachel was given a light sentence and ensured that everyone would be searching for her and Max in the wrong city, save Rachel who would’ve worked out the secret message she had left for her and would be coming for her and Max in... just over two thousand days. Chloe hadn't even comprehended that Rachel wouldn't figure out the message she left for her when she sent the photograph to her. _Oh my god, it worked, it actually worked!!_  
Max giggled and wrapped her hands even tighter in the back of Chloe's tee, pulling herself closer to her best friend. While it was true that the girls no longer had any money left after Chloe's escapade to San Francisco, not that Max knew that was where she had gone, but they were together and Chloe had finally become the joyous girl that Max knew and loved. Max was with Chloe and therefore happy, Chloe was happy, Nathan was safe and Rachel out of the deep trouble she had landed herself in and that, to the girls, was all that mattered.


	28. Graduation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for homophobia

Day 193

“The 2014 winner of the most changed and biggest disappointment awards, Rachel Dawn Amber!” The moment Rachel dreaded had arrived, the principal, Raymond Wells had called out Rachel's name. He had preemptively changed the name of one of the awards to the ‘biggest disappointment' award as her fellow high school graduates had voted her as the 'criminal of the year’ and he had been reluctant to allow that in case it damaged what was left of Blackwell's reputation. Several scathing newspaper articles had already been published about the academy and its apparent refusal to expel the kidnapper from high school despite it only being an accusation at that time and as a result, Wells didn't want any additional bad press. It had only been James Amber's influence that had kept Rachel on track for attending graduation the final months and Victoria Chase’s threat of a withdrawal of funding before that. James Amber had persuaded Sean Prescott not to push the courts into accepting the case until Rachel had finished her course at Blackwell. Sean Prescott had conceded and allowed Rachel to finish school as James had expedited certain cases in the past that allowed Sean to avoid heavier punitive measures that he should have faced instead of the lighter consequences he had faced as a result of James’ meddling.  
_Oh shit..._  
Several of the assembled seniors booed Rachel when her name was called and others jeered as she made her way to the podium. “Boo!!” was Taylor, Courtney and Brooke’s response  
“Bitch!!” Mikey called  
“Child abuser!!” Drew bellowed  
“Kidnapping cunt!” were the cries of Several of the sports team who had endured negative publicity as a result of Rachel’s actions. The only voice noticeably absent was that of the Queen Bee. Victoria Chase was sat between her parents who were watching nearby students with distaste, her high society parents weren't used to the crude comments most of Victoria's classmates were spewing in Rachel's general direction. Rachel was amazed that Victoria wasn’t joining in and stunned that she was watching her with a small amount of pity in her eyes

“Quiet please!!” Wells’ voice echoed out over the assembled crowd, making everyone stop jeering, booing and calling Rachel out. Everyone fell more or less silent save the whispers that rustled through the crowd, some parents were quietly telling their children off while others were nodding their heads in support of what their kids were saying.  
_Well you were seriously stupid, Amber_  
“Here's your diploma” Wells held it out for Rachel without offering his hand for a handshake  
“Thank you” Her eyes darted from Wells to the diploma to the nearest door and back again, she desperately wanted to escape the attention of all her former classmates, not to mention the judgemental stares of all the parents in the room and was calculating how best to escape from the scrutiny she had been placed under. She desperately needed to think of a solution to stop her ankle being irritated by the GPS tracker she had been forced to wear as part of her parole agreement, not even the DA's daughter could escape the consequences of her actions. Knowing she just had to endure, Rachel gritted her teeth and did her best to ignore the chafing and irritation caused by the tracker. She waited until Wells had finished and was going to call the next name before she rushed out of the ceremony, neither of her parents had shown up, reinforcing the opinion that Rachel had held for awhile, that she was a useless disappointment.

Blinking back tears, Rachel discarded the diploma on the floor of the bathroom she had almost run to and stormed into the nearest stall where she screamed and punched the wall, eventually throwing up and collapsing to the floor in tears

*****

Day 200

“Kate?” There was a timid knocking on the door to the room in which Kate had sequestered herself for a few days  
“Yes, Lynn?” Kate replied  
“Are you okay, you've been hiding in that room for awhile” Lynn asked, she was worried about the older teen  
“Yea... I'm okay. Just been doing some soul searching is all” Kate shrugged  
“It’s just that you've missed all the meals of the day for four days now”  
“It's okay, Lynn. I've been getting up and cooking after you've gone to bed”  
“I told you she's avoiding us” a new, younger voice joined the conversation from behind the door  
“Jessica... Not here, not now!” Lynn hissed, failing to realize the thin doors and walls allowed the sound to transfer into Kate's room with ease. She hadn't wanted to accuse Kate of anything

“Kids, breakfast!!” Richard Marsh’s voice called from downstairs. Both Lynn and Jessica called back and left, leaving Kate by herself. A few moments later there was a knock on the door. “Katie, sweetie, you gonna come join us?” His question was answered by silence and he was just turning away as he always had when the door opened, every morning, noon and night the past four days he had gone up to Kate's room and asked but had always been met with silence  
“I... I'll join you, if that's okay?” Kate was a quiet meek teen who was always afraid of causing offense  
“Of course it is, sweetie” Richard opened his arms for a hug to which Kate shied away. “Too soon?” he asked quietly  
“Sorry” Kate mumbled, reaching out to touch Richard’s hand, slowly, cautiously as if afraid he would lash out  
“No need to be sorry, sweetie. It's okay” he took her hand gently and led her downstairs to the kitchen

*****

“Good morning, Mrs. Marsh.”  
“Mr. Prescott. How are you this fine morning?” The blonde woman replied  
“I'm doing okay, thanks. How about you?” Sean Prescott smiled at the orphanage’s nurse  
“Not so well, Rich and the kids still haven't contacted me” the woman, Charity Marsh replied glumly  
“Richard left stating that he ‘didn't want the kids to grow up in such a hateful environment', am I right?” Sean Prescott replied  
“Yes. I only spoke about how all gay and transgender people were below dirt and deserved all the shit that the world throws at them, as it's merely a preparation for what they'll face after their deaths, in hell where they'll spend all eternity being tortured”  
“Uh-huh. You know I agree with you wholeheartedly hence the Dark Room, but your husband is more... Tolerant”  
“Divorce is a sin” Charity Marsh replied simply. “On the subject of the Dark Room, did you ever find him, Nathaniel? Or those two jezebels?”  
“No, we haven't found any of them yet. While Maxine is harmless and a bit of a retard, that harlot Chloe needs to face punishments for her sins. Did you know that Chloe is gay?!” Sean’s voice increased in pitch as he finished what he was saying.  
“Kinda... You yelled about it in the courtroom.” Sean raised an incredulous eyebrow, “but I know what you meant, and no I didn't know before that. Had I known I would’ve told you, made sure she faced punishment”


	29. Thirteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's yet another chapter of Saint Annabeth's!! Wow twenty-nine chapters already and I've barely even begun. I'm planning more Kate appearances from here on out and therefore beginning the build up to one of the big reveals of the fic!:)
> 
> Wowsers. 2000 hits?! That's awesome, might write another chapter today to celebrate!

Day 209

“Kate, you ready to go out?” It was a lovely day in Portland and Richard Marsh knocked on his daughter’s door, eager to take advantage of the new environment. He had planned to take his three girls to the park but Kate was taking a while to get ready, _applying makeup_ he assumed, remembering how Kate and Jessica had bonded while experimenting with makeup that Richard had got for them, _That was a heckuva messy day_ he recalled with a fond smile. Once settled enough to spend breakfast with her sisters and father, Kate made rapid progress toward being comfortable leaving the house as well culminating in her actually asking her father if they could go out and not the other way around  
“Yea, be there in a sec” pocketing her brand new cell phone and picking up both her drawing pad and brand new camera, Kate joined her father and they descended the stairs together to head out into the wider world.

Jessica and Lynn were sat on the couch, dressed up perfectly for a nice family day out. “Now I know we haven't been out in awhile, girls” Richard addressed the two young girls, “but I know how much Kate appreciates your patience with her while she gets used to her new circumstances.  
“What do you mean, daddy?” Jessica asked quietly. As an outgoing child, Jessica was usually vocal and proud but she was still young so she was cautious sometimes, especially when Kate was involved.  
“I’m sure Kate will tell you everything when you're both a lot older, girls. Now, let's get going” he led the way out of the house. Kate took a couple deep breaths as she stepped out of the door, slipping her hands into those of her sisters. Jessica was fast to reciprocate but Lynn was more cautious  
“Thank you” Kate whispered to the older of the two girls once she was holding Kate's hands who smiled a reciprocal smile that wasn't any less genuine

They had made good time to Washington Park, Richard let the two younger girls run off to play while he smiled at Kate. “So, Kate, how are you feeling?”  
“A lot better, thanks. It seems rest really does help” Though Kate's eyes never stopped moving she looked relaxed until her eyes fell upon something that scared her which resulted in Kate immediately and visibly tensing  
“Mhm” Richard nodded a small smile on his lips until he saw his daughter tense, he looked to see what Kate was looking at and was about to ask if everything was okay when he noticed that Kate was no longer sat by his side

*****

Rachel sat down outside the Picnic Shelter with a small smile. It had been her first day out in a while after she had been arrested. She had been going stir crazy in the yard in the hundred seventy or so days after she had been arrested but once she had been officially cleared for parole she had developed sudden anxiety of being in open spaces and being around people that had hindered her reintegration into the community. Her unpaid work hours hadn't yet started as she was struggling to find employment that would hire someone with such a severe criminal record as hers so her time was spent mostly lounging around the yard or floating in the Ambers' pool. It wasn’t just the first time she had left her house for her own pleasure, it was also the first time she had returned to Portland since her arrest and she didn't really want to walk around Arcadia Bay as everyone knew everyone in that small town so she had persuaded her father to drive her to Portland for a shopping trip after she cleared it with the parole officer who could grant her permission to go anywhere within the borders of Oregon but to leave the state she'd need the judge's permission. “Fancy seeing you here” a voice spoke from behind her. She had left her father at a coffee shop while she browsed the stores, taking a well-earned break in the local park  
“Stephanie fuckin' Gingrich” Rachel turned to smile at the auburn-haired nerd girl.  
“Hey, Rach” the girl sat down next to the blonde thespian with a grin. They had arranged the meet up once Rachel had been given the go-ahead to leave Tillamook. The guise of a shopping trip was just to satisfy her father

“I'm actually astounded you agreed to meet me after what I did” Rachel admitted quietly, nervous about the very real possibility of enduring the wrath of a pissed off Steph Gingrich  
“After what you did, Rach? Anyone who matters would realize that you did what you had to do to save three children from hell on earth” Steph replied, and it was true, most people just didn't know that Rachel had still essentially saved both girls a second time albeit unknowingly  
Rachel nodded. “I guess but that doesn’t excuse what I did at the trial” _I swapped them for a better future_  
“I guess not but... One thing works in your favor, Rachel Dawn Amber”  
“And what's that?’  
“You were set up” Steph whispered calmly, soothingly  
“Excuse me?” Rachel narrowed her eyes at Steph who smiled gently and didn't wither under Rachel's fiery glare  
“You, The courts, the judge, and Prescott were all played” Steph replied confidently, suppressing her horror that Rachel hadn't even realized that Max and Chloe were safe. _Poor Rachel, no wonder she looks so broken... To go through all of that then think you've betrayed your friends and maybe even killed them...!_ Steph could then understand why her blonde friend looked so broken. _And are those bloodstains on your pants, Rachel?_ Steph decided not to give voice to that concern, at least not immediately  
“Uh-huh. The city lives up to our gay dreams” Rachel stated in a monotonous voice  
“That’s what Chloe wrote on the letter she sent from San Fran” Steph nodded, excited yet scared to share her news, _how will Rachel react?_  
“It was” Rachel confirmed  
“Now, why on earth would Chloe expose her location like that? No offense, Rach but she’s with Max. By your own admission she wouldn't ever do anything to risk Max  
“You’re right. Gay dreams? Dreams... Dreams... Dreams?!” Rachel pondered then shot bolt upright at the revelation. “They're in LA?!” Steph nodded once, calmly which was an impressive feat. Rachel, on the other hand, was nowhere near calm. “Oh my god, oh my god. Oh, my motherfucking god, they're fucking safe!!!” Rachel simply couldn't contain her excitement and screamed, literally screamed while dancing on the spot for a few moments before slumping back down on to the park bench they we sat upon  
“And they're still alive. We've been checking regularly with the missing people's thingamajigs and nobody who matches their description have turned up”

Steph didn't believe Rachel could slump any further, and yet she did. Steph watched the girl’s eyes, as they changed from tortured to relieved, beyond relieved. “We?” she finally asked after a good hour, once recovered enough to gain back her ability to speak and curious as to just that one thing.  
“Tori knows too”  
“That explains it...” Rachel clicked her fingers. “That explains why Icky Vicky didn't scream hate at me at the graduation ceremony, why she had pity in her eyes”  
Steph smiled in understanding and nodded

*****

Richard Marsh found Kate playing a make-believe game with both his daughters, playing something he never thought he would see, his younger daughters play fighting with sticks and enjoying themselves to the fullest. When his wife had been around, they hadn't been able to play so freely. The man smiled widely and wordlessly thanked god and Kate

*****

Day 290

“Good morning, Chlobear” for once Max had been the one to wake up first, she rolled over and spoke to her best friend and caregiver  
“Ugh mmph” Max couldn't help but smile at Chloe's antics, she was _not_ a morning person  
“Chlobear!” Max poked Chloe's stomach  
“Huh?” Clang. “Shit! Ow, fuck, Jesus, fucking cunt!”  
“Language, Chlobear” Max scolded the older girl for her swears and blasphemy. It had only been Chloe's patient devotion to the younger girl's education that had allowed Max to know what to say, and her constant reassurance and the older girl's efforts to build her confidence up that meant she could actually say it  
“Huh? Oh, sorry Maxi” Chloe turned to face Max, still rubbing her head from where she hit it on the top of their air duct, as usual. “Oh Maxi... Before I forget, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!”

Max’s slight air of confusion gave away to pure delight. Max still didn't have a very good grasp on what date it was with days rolling by with little meaning to the brunette especially since their days were pretty much all the same, smelly and unstructured but Chloe remembered, she always remembered. It was September twenty-first, Max's thirteenth birthday. “Thank you” the brunette replied shyly. It was Max's first birthday on the streets but that wouldn't actually change all that much since very few of the orphanage staff ever remembered little Max's birthday, she was quiet and shy which had made it a helluva lot easier to forget she even existed. Even Chloe's birthday had often gone by forgotten by absolutely everyone and she was a right little troublemaker, not even her best friend Max knew what day her birthday was but Chloe didn't mind at all, she knew it was difficult for her brunette sibling to understand which was why Chloe's fourteenth birthday in March had come and gone without anyone wishing her a happy birthday.  
“I love you, Maxi” Chloe whispered  
“I love you too, Chlobear” Chloe smiled at Max's words, Rachel had certainly been correct when she said that Max wasn't stupid, she had taken to the classes Chloe had been giving her and had progressed in leaps and bounds. In just a few short months Max had learned all the basic functions of math, learned how to read albeit slowly, so long as what she was reading didn't have too many big words in it, learned about some of the basic concepts of science and had made rather impressive progress on her vocabulary. Chloe couldn't be more proud of what Max had achieved and Chloe wanted to make the day about Max instead of just surviving.

“Are you ready to go?” Chloe asked of her best friend, her sister and in a number, a lot of ways her dependent.  
“Yes, Chlobear. Where we go?”  
“Where are we going” Chloe corrected gently  
“Where are we going, Chlobear?” Max automatically repeated, filing that correction away for later usage  
“It's a surprise my Maxi, but first we need to go somewhere” Chloe crawled along their air duct, having been careful to pack everything away, even their smelly sleeping bags as to not leave behind even a trace that they'd been there

About an hour later, Max was stood underneath a shower, soaking while Chloe went out to put their clothes in a laundromat she had found for this particular day. Chloe had decided that Max would get a good meal and a proper night’s rest as a birthday treat, as a result the girl had been scrounging up what she could from people and made enough to indulge her brunette friend. She even had enough money left over after budgeting for the motel and diner meals to buy Max a surprise present or two she hoped she'd like.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up, Max's birthday and probably more Kate


	30. Thirteen (part 2)

Day 290

“Chlobear!!!” Max exclaimed in surprise when Chloe began her tickle attack on the bench seat of the diner booth they were sat in while the amused waiting staff watched the two homeless girls have some fun. She and Chloe had had a delicious feast upon pancakes, bacon and, when the waiting staff of the diner had heard the girls’ plight, that they were homeless but celebrating a birthday; Max's first teen birthday, several sides of fries were added to the order and a huge discount was thrown in. The waiting staff had had a very good day as far as tips went so they willingly spent some of their tip money on the two girls to ensure they had enough food.

All too soon it was time for the two girls to leave the diner. Chloe had been overwhelmed by the kindness shown by complete strangers and had wiped away her tears quickly so that Max wouldn't worry about her. Max meanwhile had been overwhelmed by Chloe's devotion and determination to make it a good day, she had been pleasantly surprised when Chloe pulled out a new SD card for her camera since the one she had in it was slowly filling up but had become overcome with tears when the older girl had pulled out a small book. At first, Max had been confused by it, thinking it was a new textbook but when she opened it and was greeted by some of her best photographs organized by date she burst into tears and hugged her best friend tightly. “Thank you, Chlobear!!” the teen exclaimed, bunching the back of Chloe's shirt up in a rib crushing hug

“Ugh. Fuckin' dikes...” a voice grumbled from behind Chloe who spun around and gave the elderly woman there such a ferocious glare that she quickly muttered something else to herself then went back to her food, nobody insulted Max in front of Chloe, _nobody_  
Chloe wrapped her arms around her best friend and pulled her in close. “She's a little too young to be hearing words like that” Chloe hissed at the woman, “and if you _ever_ speak badly of her again I'll deck you, age be fucking damned”  
Cowed, the older woman just nodded. She still didn't support homosexuals but, as she looked more closely at the way the taller girl was holding the shorter she grudgingly accepted that it wasn't the hold of two girls in love, at least not in the way she had suspected and reviled. “Sorry”

Chloe merely glared again and soon she stood, pulling Max up with her. “Come on, you. Let's go”  
“But I don't wanna!!” Max replied, grumbling her displeasure. Max's tone was, as always, one of immaturity that underlined just how far from a romantic relationship the two girls were. While Chloe was perfectly capable of exploring a romantic relationship and in fact had done so with Rachel, Max was simply too immature to even experience romantic feelings toward anyone. Chloe continued her scathing glaring at the woman as she guided the younger girl from the diner. “Where to now, Chlobear?”  
“We have one more stop” Chloe replied, double-checking she had enough money left over for what would be their final thing save an evening meal.  
“What is it?” Max asked quietly  
“Tis a surprise” the older girl winked at Max  
“Okay, Chlobear” the younger girl patted her tummy as they walked along at a gentle pace, thinking how good it felt to have had a decent meal for a change. Suddenly the younger girl stopped and pulled slightly on Chloe's arm at the same time as fumbling with her bag to retrieve her camera, she had seen a photo opportunity. An intense look appeared on her features as she lined up a shot. _Always take the shot!_  
Chloe smirked happily and chuckled, she had seen what her best friend was doing and it filled her with happiness to see the usually inattentive teen so intense, so focused was a joy to behold. “We have all the time you need, Maxi”

Five minutes later Max was done with her photography and put her camera away with the utmost care. “Ready, Maxi?”  
“Yea, Chlobear” Max reached out for her best friend and Chloe led Max to a nearby mall. “What...” Max's mouth dropped open at the sight of the store they stopped in front of. “Are you cereal?”  
“Yeah, super cereal” Chloe replied, ruffling the other girl's hair  
Max squealed and clapped her hands excitedly. “Chlobear! Chlobear!”  
“I know you lost yours when we ran. I thought it'd be nice to replace him. They even do pirate costumes...”  
Max threw herself at the older girl so energetically that the older girl had to take a few steps back and was only saved from falling over by the store wall. “Oof”

A few hours had passed before Max and Chloe re-emerged from the store, Max clutching something close to her chest. “Are you ready to head back to our motel, Maxi?”  
Max nodded happily, clutching at her new toy. “Love, Chlobear. Captain”  
“I'm so happy you love your new toy! And Captain two point oh, cool” as usual Chloe was able to interpret the younger girl's broken sentences and seemingly random words with ease and she had a joyous smile on her face at the younger girl's overjoyed expression and her innocent love for both Chloe and her birthday present which she swung side to side while clinging it close to her chest. It had been Chloe’s parents who had purchased the original Captain for Max and Chloe had been the one to give him to the younger girl the Christmas before their parents died and they ended up in the orphanage. “Thank. Chlobear”  
“Thank you, Chlobear”  
“Thank you, Chlobear” Max giggled again, happy to finally have The Captain back even if it wasn't the original, it still came from Chloe. “Bubba Bear is best!!”  
“Build-a-Bear, Maxi”  
“Build-a-Bear?”

*****

Day 362

The day was a solemn day for Rachel. It had been one year since she had been forced to abandon Max and Chloe in Portland and she was even more antisocial than she had become in the beginning, before Steph had revealed to her that Max and Chloe were safe in Los Angeles. Rachel had been trying her hardest to ignore what the day was by binging on Netflix until she was tired enough to sleep, she hadn't slept for almost two days and was exhausted but her mind wouldn't let her sleep. _Shit_. Rachel winced as she moved her legs, neither Rose nor James had any idea what their daughter had been doing to herself behind closed doors. As disappointed as both parents were with Rachel’s decisions, they still cared about their daughter and both would be heartbroken by the fact that their daughter was hurting herself. Rachel, on the other hand, knew that if they found out, her parents would most likely try to stop her and remove everything sharp from the house which she didn't want. She felt the need to punish herself for every day her two friends suffered alone on the streets and had been doing so every day since she had been arrested. _I need to punish myself again_. Rachel reached down the side of her bed and pulled out her blade

“Rachel!! Your friends are here to see you!” Rose called up the stairs. Steph and Victoria had decided to visit Rachel on the worst day. “Rachel?”  
Steph and Victoria shared a worried glance as Rose ascended the stairs to check on Rachel


	31. Time is the fire in which we burn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A few hefty timeskips coming up...
> 
> Hope you enjoy

Day 364  
“Shit. I'm _so_ sorry you two” Rachel lifted her eyes up from where she had been staring at the IV lines in her arm to look at the two people who were sat with her in the hospital room she had been stuck in for several days. Whereas at one time the room would’ve been almost constantly filled with various well-wishers and friends, she had almost nobody visit her, only the two young women who say with her and her parents. Having to keep up appearances, Steph and Victoria only visited late in the evening while everyone else was out getting drunk. _I'm such a... bitch_

“Rachel... Don't apologize” Steph spoke quietly, earnestly and with a lot of love that Rachel would argue that she didn't deserve after what she had done to Max and Chloe and what she had done to escape her fate without thinking about how the girls would react to the situation  
“But Steph... I tried to kill myself, knowing that they are still out there... Somewhere. I'm weak and pathetic, looking for the easy way out” Rachel whined, trying to put on her best pout to try to get the other girls to see her in the same light she saw herself; as a monster too caught up in her own suffering to do what was right for others. She had panicked and gotten herself arrested instead of facing her future with the two girls that trusted her, she had effectively made the decision to turn the girls over to Prescott and Jefferson despite knowing of their fates and most recently had attempted to kill herself.  
“Rach... It's okay” Victoria put on the best soothing tone she could muster, her expression filled with emotion that she would usually attempt to keep suppressed, regret, sorrow and empathy. “We know how hard it’s been on you especially since you were convicted and forced to reveal the location of the girls” she kept her tone steady in an effort to keep the lie believable, all three of the girls in the hospital room knew that Max and Chloe being in San Francisco was a lie but they had gotten into the habit of keeping it all under wraps, pretending that they didn't know the girls were really in Los Angeles and that the two visitors in Rachel's hospital room hadn't been disappearing off to LA whenever they were supposed to be searching through the streets of San Francisco.  
“How long are you going to be in here?” Steph asked of the blonde  
“Fuck if I know. Word’s gotten back to the parole board so I might be remanded in here for awhile and even if I'm not they could still fifty one fifty me” _and I would deserve just that_. Rachel, having grown up in California only really knew the Californian mental health code by name, even though James Amber was the DA of Tillamook she still hadn’t been able to grasp the meaning of those damned codes, much less memorize them. Her father had refused to intervene to prevent the parole board from advising the judge to send her to a psych unit, much to the free spirit's chagrin so her somewhat limited future was even more up in the air.

Rachel's thoughts appeared to be easily interpreted by Victoria who narrowed her eyes at the other blonde. “Fuck that, Rach!” she replied, then lowered her voice, “all of us here, those of us who matter anyway know you did what you did because you had to, the best interests of those two girls was your driving force behind your actions”  
_Mind telling the rest of the world that?_ Rachel almost spoke the words aloud but stopped herself just in time, she really would be opening a can of worms if any one of their little inner circle spoke of the truth which they had to keep hidden from everyone else to protect two children. Chloe and Max would be firmly on Sean Prescott's radar once again, and they wouldn't have Rachel, Steph or Victoria to help them since they would all be liable to be sent to jail for their deceptions while under oath  
Once again her companions seemed to know what she was thinking, she didn't know if it was weird friendship telepathy or just her expression and they both pulled her in closer. “If we tell anyone, then the girls will be in danger.”  
“I know. Vic, I know that” Rachel still gazed over at the window, imagining herself plummeting off of the top of the lighthouse, down the cliff and onto the sharp rocks below. She was tired, so tired

“Maybe it’s better that Rachel is kept in there, better than letting her lose where she could end up at the lighthouse or up at the railroad, or junkyard” Victoria spoke to Steph quietly as they left the hospital to head back to Steph's house where they would continue to plan their mission to find Chloe and Max and to get them to safety  
“Maybe you're right, Vic. Poor Rachel though, she's going through a lot of shit and it's so upsetting watching her destroy herself like that”  
“I know... Maybe one day we'll get the info we need to get Prescott arrested and clear Rachel's name”

*****

Day 1128  
“You’re _what_?!” Victoria snapped, her eyes narrowing at the other blonde stood in her doorway who had just given her some news she hadn't ever wanted to hear  
“Vic... It's been _three years_ since those girls went missing and we've been searching as much as we can as often as we can without so much as a hint of them ever being anywhere we go. It's time to move on. They're not in San Fran, Vic and even if they are they're _probably_ dead.” Of course Taylor hated that fact as much as anyone else but she had grown to have a grudging acceptance of that fact over the period of six months or so despite suspecting it long before that  
“Fuck you, Taylor” Victoria slammed her dorm room door in the blonde's face, a look of rage twisting her features. A surge of regret forced itself through the pixie blonde almost immediately after, her friend who had been incredibly vulnerable since her mother had gotten sick had burst into tears. She knew that Taylor had been kept out of the loop about where Max and Chloe really were and that it was probably for the best that she didn't know where they were, both for their safety and her own. Victoria opened the door again to find that Taylor had already vanished, presumably toward her room. “Shit”

Victoria didn't see Taylor for several weeks since she and the others no longer tended to show at the regular meetings they had been holding in their efforts to find Max and Chloe. Warren promised he’d keep the Facebook page up to date which he had updated to include Max since the trial that found Rachel guilty but that was it, everyone else had given up any hope of finding the girls alive. “Well, I guess that's over then” Steph grumbled to Victoria, it had been so nice to see the vast majority of Blackwell united in a common goal and it was sad to see it come to an end. Rachel was still in the hospital after her suicide attempt, the judge had ruled that Rachel would spend a while in the psych unit after her suicide attempt since she had a fair amount of prior self-harm and other students at Blackwell had reported her for substance use, only after she had seemingly betrayed Max and Chloe but regardless of that, the courts took it seriously and ordered that she should stay in the psych unit until a time at which she was no longer a danger to herself. That had been quite awhile ago though with the court having renewed the commitment order every one hundred eighty days

*****

Day 1830  
It began with a cough. Max and Chloe had been on the streets for far too long, for five years, and it was clearly apparent by that point. Neither girl had kept up on their hygiene since they never had enough money because hiding in ventilation shafts wasn't very conducive to gaining money from the public and both had lost a lot of weight, almost to a dangerous level. Both girls smelled, their teeth were yellow and their fingernails filthy, it was only a matter of time before something serious would happen to one or both. Furthermore, since Saint Annabeth's was a religious orphanage, neither girl had had any vaccinations since before they had lost their parents which left them both even more vulnerable to whatever sickness they came across. Five years in, it had finally happened and had quickly escalated to a life-threatening severity.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, fifty. Thousand. Words?! Not to mention the 74 kudos, 2158 hits, over a hundred and fifty comments. Thank you!! Thank you so much!! I'm so happy people are enjoying this so much  
> 50k words, and to think we're just about reaching the end of the first arc... of three maybe four? This story might well turn into a full on novel

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave reviews!!


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